Joel Rydstrand’s corner kick led to Ricky Lopez-Espin’s first goal of the evening (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
Elmar Bolowich’s 24th-ranked Creighton men’s soccer team shook off their recent scoring struggles on Thursday night and played their way into a first-round home match in the Big East Tournament.
Ricky Lopez-Espin tallied goals in the first and second half, while Riggs Lennon slotted home a penalty kick in the middle to lead to the slumping Bluejays to a 3-0 win over Georgetown in front of over 2,000 fans at Morrison Stadium.
“Urgency was the key word,” the Creighton coach said. “We’re in the knockout phase right now, the season is on the line, you had to produce a result. We knew we had played well all along, we were just not fortunate to win the games and that had to change. Fortunately it did.”
Creighton entered their regular-season finale against the Hoyas on a three-match losing streak. In losses to Villanova, Xavier, and Providence they out-shot their opponents by a combined total of 64-20, but only managed to find the back of the net once in that span. Against Georgetown they only produced a 15-14 advantage in shots, but thanks to a more clinical approach in the attacking third they were able to final put some crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
“Sooner or later the ball was going to go in,” Lopez-Espin said. “We had been having good looks — at Xavier we hit the post and had a lot of shots, same thing against Villanova. Today they seemed to fall. Hopefully we can keep it going. We have finishers on the team, so no matter how many shots we take it’s about the quality that we have, and sooner or later they are going to go in.”
The junior forward from Miami, Florida came into the match second on the team with five goals this season, and was the only Bluejay to find the back of the net during the three-match skid. He found it again in the 20th minute against Georgetown when sophomore midfielder Joel Rydstrand sent in a corner kick that was headed into the goal box by sophomore center back Peter Prescott. The ball bounced up off the turf where Lopez-Espin was able turn and flick it back into the net. The strike was his sixth of the season and the first by Creighton in just over 162 minutes going back to his second-half tally in a 2-1 loss at Xavier.
“I’ve never been happier,” Jays senior goalkeeper Alex Kapp said after watching Lopez-Espin give him an early cushion. “It was more of a relief off our back because we haven’t been able to score lately. That goes in and everyone was able to settle in a little bit.”
The Bluejays extended the lead a few minutes later with a little help from the opposition when midfielder Arun Basuljevic tripped up Creighton senior forward Riggs Lennon at the left corner of the 18-yard box to set up a penalty kick. Lennon took it himself and slotted it right down the middle for his team-leading 10th goal of the season, putting the Bluejays up 2-0 with 21:56 left to play in the first half.
They took that two-goal lead into halftime, then sealed the deal with 23:01 remaining in regulation on an unassisted strike from Lopez-Espin that he bent inside the far post from about 15 yards out.
“It was a relief to have two going into halftime, but the plan for the second half was not to step off the pedal,” the junior forward said. “We got that third one that really helped us, and then we just killed the game off. That’s what we’ve kind of lacked in the last two games.”
The defensive half of the pitch was just as strong for the Bluejays. Although the Hoyas’ attack produced 14 shots, only four of those were on frame as the back line stayed tight and didn’t allow many quality scoring chances.
Ricky Lopez-Espin scored two goals on Thursday night against Georgetown (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
“I thought they covered really for one another,” Bolowich said. “They had a good opportunity in the first half — they barely missed and shot it a little bit wide — where we let them come inside, but other than that I thought we did a good job of constantly keeping the pressure on their forwards.”
The scoreboard ended up looking lopsided, while the stat sheet showed a close affair, but it was a complete performance by a desperate Creighton side. They were clinical in the attacking third and tight and composed on defense. They rallied around each other in the face of a season that was spiraling control, and produced a result when they needed it most.
“If you have three games and you lose all three it brings you closer,” Lopez-Espin said. “Before the game we said “family” and that’s what we are. We made a promise to each other that we’d have each other’s back no matter what, and we trust in each other. There is no reason to panic like we did at Villanova a little bit and at Xavier. We trusted ourselves and we got the result. Now we just keep it rolling.”
The win combined with No. 18 Butler’s 2-1 victory at Xavier moved Creighton into fourth place, three points ahead of the Musketeers, in the final Big East standings. As a result they will host the team that beat them 2-1 in double overtime just eight days ago despite a 29-7 shot disparity in favor of the Bluejays, and they wouldn’t want it any other way.
“We’re ready. We want them,” the junior forward added. “That’s the team I think we want most along with Providence and Villanova — the three that we don’t think we deserved a loss against. It’s revenge. We’re ready for it.”
Kickoff between the Bluejays and Xavier is set for 3:00 p.m. on Sunday at Morrison Stadium. The winner will travel to Rhode Island the following Thursday to face the Providence Friars, who wrapped up the Big East regular-season title on Thursday with a 1-0 win at St. John’s.