When the goal is to build a team capable of competing for a national championship, a weekend where your team wins two games by a combined score of 5-0 is called a “work in progress” at the end of the day. That’s how Creighton men’s soccer head coach Elmar Bolowich described the state of his team after a 4-0 result against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon at Morrison Stadium.
“I’m typically a little more impatient and want to see progress a little earlier and sooner, but I understand that we still have some work to do,” Bolowich said. “We are by no means clicking on all cylinders right now. We are not the kind of machine that I envision us to be at this point in time, but with a lot of training sessions, and a few more games, hopefully we’re going to get there.”
Perhaps Creighton’s output on Sunday helped to ease their head coach’s mind a little bit, at least for this weekend. The 6th-ranked Bluejays (2-0-0) scored goals in the 9th minute, 29th minute, 64th minute, and 68th minute to put the visiting Panthers (1-1-0) in the rear view mirror. Senior midfielder Timo Pitter scored the game’s first goal, taking a short pass in the box from junior midfielder Fabian Herbers and tapping it over Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior goalkeeper Agustin Rey to give Creighton an early 1-0 lead.
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See photos of the win from WBR photographer Brad Williams
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The second goal came on a beautiful play by redshirt junior forward Myles Englis and redshirt freshman defender Mitch LaGro.
LaGro played a long ball over the top of the Wisconsin-Milwaukee defense to Englis, who sealed off his defender, rotated to let the ball get through, then took a touch before sending it inside the far left post from just inside the 18-yard box.
Creighton carried the 2-0 lead into the second half before senior midfielder Fernando Castellanos broke the Panthers with a goal in the 64th minute. Castellanos took a pass from sophomore midfielder Noah Franke near the right of the penalty arc before firing a shot inside the near post.
“That put them away,” Castellanos said. And in case there was any doubt, Fabian Herbers erased any sign of it four and half minutes later when he stole the ball away from Wisconsin-Milwaukee sophomore defender Kostas Kotselas, took a couple touches toward the left side of the box and placed a shot low inside the near post to produce the final 4-0 margin.
The Bluejays scored as many goals as their opponents had total shots for the match, out-shooting Wisconsin-Milwaukee 25-4 over the course of 90 minutes. Herbers led Creighton with two points on the afternoon, recording an assist on Pitter’s strike for the first goal of the game, then putting the icing on the cake by scoring the fourth and final goal of the game. The native of Ahaus, Germany finished the opening weekend with two goals and an assist after he scored the game-winning goal in Friday night’s 1-0 season-opening win over Michigan to go along with his performance on Sunday.
Bolowich acknowledges that Sunday afternoon matches can sometimes be hard to get up for, especially after a hard fought win not even 48 hours prior.
“When you have a team like Michigan that really tests you to the last minute, and you have to stay focused,” Bolowich said. “You pretty much keep your lineup in for a long period of time where you don’t have the luxury of constantly making these substitutions. It can sometimes be a little bit of a struggle on a Sunday game to find the fresh legs, and to find the necessary concentration. I think in the end we still did okay. We had one or two breakdowns here where there was a little bit of miscommunication, it’s a work in progress, but overall I think it was good.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt either to get a commanding lead early in the match so you can get some fresh legs on the field and work some reserves into game shape.
“In this game here we had the luxury after it was 2-0 that we could make multiple substitutions and get players in that haven’t played a lot yet, and give them a little bit of experience. That was also key,” the Creighton head coach said. “It’s always good for your morale on the team. It’s also good for those who have played quite a lot of minutes to get them the necessary rest.”
Another Clean Sheet For Sparrow
With two clean sheets against Michigan and Wisconsin-Milwaukee this weekend, senior goalkeeper Connor Sparrow adds two more shutouts to a Creighton career total that now stands at 16. The play of his back line along with the attackers constantly pushing play on the other side of the field kept Sparrow out of trouble for most of the afternoon against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but the senior had to make seven saves to keep Michigan off the board on Friday night.
While he’s pleased with the results, Sparrow notes that there are still things the team can take away from the victories that need to be cleaned up as the season rolls on.
“I think just as a whole we need to get the press down,” the senior said. “Really figure out when to press and when not to on the sit back. Just organize ourselves more. A big part of that is the midfield players calling it, just giving the signal to go or to stay.”
“There’s a lot of areas we could tidy up; ball possession, decision-making on when to go forward and when not to go forward. Especially at the end of the game there, we were sometimes trying to hit a long ball over the top, but when you’re up 4-0 the smartest thing to do is just keep the ball and try to work the field. There’s really no use in turning the ball over.”
