OMAHA, Neb. – The No. 12 Creighton Bluejays defeated the Drake men's soccer team, 5-1, Sunday afternoon in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Championship at Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
The loss ends the 2015 season for Drake, which won the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title for the first time since 2009. Drake, the No. 3 seed, won three games in five days to claim the MVC title.

The Bulldogs finished the year at 13-5-3 overall, the most victories for the program since 2009. Drake claimed a huge road win at Kentucky Thursday in the opening round of the NCAAs.
Creighton (18-3-0) claimed an early lead Sunday with a goal by Ricky Lopez-Esbin off a give-and-go from Fabian Herbers in the ninth-minute (8:24). The Bluejays added another goal in the opening half to lead 2-0 at the halftime break.

"At halftime we talked about getting back into the game down 2-0," said Drake head coach Gareth Smith. "We made some adjustments and got after it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But we weren't going to sit back and take our lumps. We weren't going down without a fight."

Sophomore Steven Enna (Overland Park, Kan.) put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard late in the contest with his fourth goal after taking a pass from junior Ben LeMay (Hugo, Minn.). It was the fourth assist of the season for LeMay.

"We knew we were going up against a tough team, but we knew being Drake we are never going to back down," said Enna. "We battled for 90 minutes out there. We have a strong core, a great group of guys. Regardless of all the adversity we went through this year, we were together from August until now. We have a great group of seniors who are the backbone of the team. Its been a great season."

Creighton scored three more goals in the second half to pull away for the win as the Bluejays will play the winner of No. 5 North Carolina and Coastal Carolina in the elite 8 next weekend.
Drake recorded five shots in the game with two on goal. Junior goalie Darrin MacLeod (Waterloo, Ontario) finished with 10 saves. Creighton had 25 shots, including 17 on goal.

Five seniors closed their respective careers Sunday as Alec Bartlett (Overland Park, Kan.), Austin Reutzel (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Alex Troester (Iowa City, Iowa), Brandon Welter (Mankato, Minn.) and Kyle Whigham (Overland Park, Kan.) suited up for the final time in the Blue and the White.