Creighton weathered a 30-minute weather delay and the first match in a month without at least one goal from Matthew Reed to beat Providence 3-0 in their Big East opener on Friday night. Allan Juarez (31’), Diego Ferruzzi (43’), and Angel Lopez (62’) picked up the slack with Reed held scoreless, while goalie Matthew Hudson pitched a clean sheet as CU moved to 7-0-2.
“Awesome. Really excited for us to get off on the on the front foot in Big East play against a very good Providence side,” Johnny Torres said afterward. “They’ll go on to be successful this season. That’s a tough team.”
Four minutes after the match re-started, Allan Juarez got the Jays on the board with a goal that was assisted by both Carter Derksen and Ayden Kokoszka.
Bringing the BOOM coming out of the lightning delay 🌩️
Allan Juarez drives in and delivers giving the Jays’ the lead!
1-0 Jays, 30th minute#GoJays pic.twitter.com/xU2v8OiGiN
— Creighton Men’s Soccer (@creightonmsoc) September 19, 2026
“A lightning delay can cause disruption. You have to be committed to what we’re trying to do to sit around for 30 minutes after you’ve already started the match,” Torres said. “To be honest with you, I thought the lightning delay actually helped us because I thought we were a bit sloppy before that. I thought we were a bit lethargic. But we came out after that lightning delay with a little bit more energy collectively and I thought that that helped us get on the front foot.”
Later in the half, senior Diego Ferruzzi scored his first career goal on a play where he found himself with the ball in front of the net after a deflection. He collected it and fired a bullet into the back of the net for a 2-0 Bluejay lead. Ferruzzi has played in 19 matches across three seasons as a Bluejay, and four at Central Arkansas as a freshman, with 12 career shots before finally getting his first collegiate goal.
Jays get the ball and Diego Ferruzzi fires his shot in, extending the Jays lead to 2!
2-0, 43rd minute.#GoJays pic.twitter.com/5fowlqEYv4
— Creighton Men’s Soccer (@creightonmsoc) September 19, 2026
After the match, Ferruzzi deflected attention and credited his teammates for the goal. “I felt like it just came from our collective effort,” he said. “We all were getting back. We all were putting in challenges and then it just came from transition.”
But when asked more directly about it, he opened up a little as Torres smiled proudly beside him. “It was honestly…it was so electric,” Ferruzzi said. “Johnny gets mad at me because I’ll be taking shots from everywhere. I think finally this year I’ve like, figured out when the right moments are to take shots. I’m really happy.”
Creighton put the match out of reach in the 62nd minute when Angel Lopez fired a shot into the back of the net. His fifth goal of the season gave CU a 3-0 lead.
Angel Lopez joining the storm! 💥
Lopez scores his 5th goal of the season as the Jays’ increase the lead to 3!#GoJays pic.twitter.com/p7aidKDXft
— Creighton Men’s Soccer (@creightonmsoc) September 19, 2026
The Jays were the only team in the Big East’s Midwest Division to pick up a win on the first weekend of league play; Akron and Butler battled to a 0-0 tie, while Xavier and DePaul tied 1-1 and Marquette lost 3-0 in a cross-division battle against Georgetown. They step out of league action on Tuesday for a road game at Denver, and then head to Milwaukee to take on Marquette on Saturday night.
Highlights and Press Conference: