Elmar Bolowich shouldn’t have any trouble convincing people that this year’s Creighton men’s soccer team has a long way to go after struggling in all areas of play throughout Wednesday night’s 2-0 exhibition win over Missouri State.
The Bears out-shot Creighton, 17-14, despite getting shutout. Reserve goalkeepers Michael Kluver and Connor Gavigan had to make some timely saves when things broke down in the box as issues with controlling play in the midfield filtered into the back line several times throughout the match.
“A lot of it has to do with the midfield,” Bolowich said. “We never really could pressure the ball in the midfield. Our midfield was very pedestrian in the first half and the second half. No intensity. Nobody set the tone in there. So now the back line is overworked, because they don’t know when to step, they don’t know when to drop. They had all sorts of problems facing them, which normally should be taken care of by our midfielders at making play predictable. Tonight everything was unpredictable.”
Creighton’s reserves got the starting nod and responded by banging home a goal on the first shot of the game. Junior defender Stefan Wutte moved up the right side just over the midfield line and played a ball into the box. Freshman forward Bryce Gibson, the tallest player on the Bluejay roster at 6-feet 5-inches, timed his run and headed the ball passed Missouri State keeper Liam Priestley to give his team a 1-0 lead with 38:33 remaining in the first half.
After watching Missouri State control possession on Creighton’s half of the field for most of the first half against their reserves, the probable starters turned that around after halftime. They created scoring chances against the Bears’ defense, which eventually resulted in a goal by junior forward Ricky Lopez-Espin in the 79th minute to push the lead to 2-0.
Hastings College transfer Akeem Ward set up the goal with a lob pass over Missouri State’s center back. Lopez-Espin caught up to the ball and took one touch going to his left before slotting the ball into the lower right corner of the net.
“Coming from the same club team, me and Akeem know each other,” Lopez-Espin said. “There were two guys to my right and I knew there was space behind, so I just drifted off, Akeem played a great ball, and I just tapped it in. It was just a great ball from Akeem.”
The Bluejays struggled at times last year in the box against bigger teams, often relying on the relentless and efficient ground game from senior All-Americans Fabian Herbers and Timo Pitter. Against Missouri State on Wednesday night both goals came on balls in the air, something that Lopez-Espin feels this year’s team is better equipped to capitalize on.
“Last year we had good size, but we didn’t have any towers,” the Shattuck-St. Mary’s product said. “I think I was the tallest guy. Now we have Peter [Prescott] getting more minutes, Bryce getting more minutes, and then we add Riggs [Lennon], who is awesome in the air. We have a big air presence this year, so we’re excited.”
After 90 minutes of regulation the two sides played two ten-minute overtime periods just to get some reps under their belt before the regular season begins. Junior forward Scott Midgley scored a goal for Missouri State early in the first overtime period. Though the goal didn’t count on the official stat sheet for the match, it was enough to add to the list of issues Creighton will have to address as the season gets rolling.
“I thought we handled [the challenge] pretty poor actually on all aspects,” Bolowich said. “Our front line wasn’t very good. I think our back line struggled, especially playing out of the back. They gave a decent effort on the defensive end of it, but certainly it is not the Creighton style that we are used to and that we have our sights set on. There is a ton of work ahead of us. That certainly was a sub-par performance on all levels.”
The Bluejays won’t have much time to iron out everything, either, as they host Wisconsin on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. at Morrison Stadium.
“We cannot go on overload, so I don’t anticipate that we’ll play stellar when we play Wisconsin,” Bolowich said. “I think it’s going to be an ongoing struggle for awhile until we hit our stride. We just hope that we can cheat ourselves through the front end of the season.”
