Photos courtesy of Tasha Swanson
Creighton was “flipping out” over the win (photo courtesy of Tasha Swanson)
The soccer journeys of Johnny Torres and Michael Gabb came full circle on Saturday afternoon. For the third straight match, the former standout players at Creighton patrolled the sideline as the guys they now coach made enough plays on both ends of the pitch to earn an NCAA Tournament win on the road, this time downing No. 7 seed Duke, 3-2, in Durham, N.C., to punch their ticket to the College Cup for the sixth time in program history and first time since 2012.
The Blue Devils entered the match leading all Division I men’s soccer teams in goals against average (0.444), save percentage (.887), and shutout percentage (.667). But they were facing a Bluejays side that ranked first in total goals scored and second in scoring offense at 2.74 goals per match. The offense won out in the end as senior midfielder Charles Auguste, junior forward Duncan McGuire, and sophomore midfielder Jackson Castro each scored goals in the first half to provide all the offensive production they would need to extend their season and send Creighton to the College Cup for the sixth time in program history.
“I understand that Duke had only allowed eight goals, but I think [this match] puts us at 63 goals this season,” Creighton head coach Johnny Torres said. “I think we pack a good attacking punch.”
Creighton celebrates their win over Duke (Photo by Tasha Swanson)
That punch landed 100% of the time it was thrown as Creighton put all three of their shots on goal over the end line against Duke. The first haymaker came in the 17th minute when McGuire challenged a defender along the sideline to inhibit a strong clearance. That allowed Auguste to come on, pick it off, and play it through into the box to McGuire, who finished it off to tie the school single-season mark with his nation-leading 22nd goal of the campaign.
“We have a couple of these guys on the team — they are soccer junkies,” Torres said. “They have a sense of the game. They understand the game and where their positioning should be. It helped on Duncan’s goal for [Auguste] to have the presence of mind to defend forward and snuff that ball out before he could play it into Duncan.”
The Blue Devils tied it up a little over 10 minutes later on freshman forward Axel Gudbjornsson’s fourth goal of the season, but Creighton wasn’t done swinging. They retook the lead with 2:41 left in the opening half as sophomore left back Miguel Ventura found Jackson Castro on a pinpoint service to the far post in transition. Castro didn’t even wait for it to hit the turf so he could settle, instead opting to go with the one-timer in the air. The ball dinked off the woodwork and the goalkeeper before ruled a goal and sparking a sliding celebration by the sophomore out of Plano, Texas. Officials went to VAR and upheld the original call after a brief review to give the Jays a 2-1 lead.
“[Ventura] gave us a bit of a lift there on that left side,” Torres said. “We were able to get him on the ball and it was a pretty good service on his part, and just a great initiative by Jackson to be able to track that ball down and redirect it towards goal like he did. Jackson is a very creative player and a very dangerous player in the final third. We are lucky to have him.”
Paul Kruse had a heck of a day in goal for the Bluejays (Photo courtesy of Tasha Swanson)
Nearly two minutes later, Creighton gave themselves an insurance policy going into the locker room at halftime when Charles Auguste made a bold decision from 25 yards out and fired a cannon inside the upper left corner of the goal to extend the lead to 3-1 over the stingiest defense in the country with 45 seconds left in the period. While their attack put them in great position to advance after one half of soccer, the final 45 minutes would be decided by how well they could protect their own goal from a suddenly desperate Duke side. Fortunately, Creighton fifth-year starting goalkeeper Paul Kruse was in another stratosphere with his shot-stopping on the day, so all the Blue Devils were able to get out of 13 shots and 14 corner kicks in the second half was an own goal by the Jays off a deflected cross in the 75th minute. Kruse made 8 saves on the day, the most by a Bluejay netminder in an NCAA Tournament match since Jeff Gal also stopped eight against Akron during Creighton’s 2012 run to the College Cup. The senior captain from Heilbronn, Germany stood on his head all day for the Jays. He made kick saves, punchouts, got his fingertips to balls that threatened to sneak in under the crossbar, and even made one in the second half on a point-blank redirect while he was sprawled out on the turf after laying out to stop the initial shot. It was a legendary shot-stopping performance in the biggest match of his long career.
“With a goalie like Paul we want to make sure that he’s making the saves that he’s supposed to make,” Torres said. “But we also understand that in order for us to be successful and be able to go far, you also need a goalkeeper who can make two, sometimes three of the saves that he’s not supposed to make. I think he did that today. He brings so much calm to our back line and leadership to our whole group.”
Back at the team hotel after a rainy celebration at Koskinen Stadium, there was a little time to reflect on the weight of the accomplishment, for Torres and Gabb in particular. The former was part of four straight NCAA Tournament appearances with the Bluejays in the mid-to-late 90’s. He led CU to its first College Cup appearance in program history on his way to winning the first of two consecutive National Player of the Year awards. After becoming head coach in 2018, Torres was open about his desire to bring his alma mater back to the NCAA Tournament and get them back in the conversation as a College Cup/National Championship contender. The fact that he was able to do it with another former Bluejay by his side was not lost on him as he reflected on the journey to this moment.
Creighton players celebrating with those in attendance (photo courtesy of Tasha Swanson)
“It’s amazing,” Torres said. “We did it as kids before and we believed that our program was a big program back then when we were players. To me, it’s that much more special to be back as staff and continuing that standard of getting Creighton Soccer back to where we were when Gabb and I were student-athletes. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to continue the trend, to continue the lineage of the success of our program.”
Gabb had a layered approach to his response. After all, he’s part of the Creighton team that came the closest to the ultimate goal when they lost to UConn in the 2000 national title match. He was in goal for that team and led them back to the College Cup two years later. Returning to that stage now as a coach gets to him emotionally because he not only gets to share these moments with a new generation of Bluejays, but he also gets to relive the ones he had as a player with his former teammates who have cheered them on from afar along this run through the Big East Tournament and now the NCAA Tournament.
“First and foremost, it’s a privilege to help these guys get to the same place and have the same experiences that I was able to have with our groups and to share in the joy and the journey and everything that goes along with getting to this spot,” assistant coach Michael Gabb said. “My goal when I came back was to be able to guide them and show them and share in that experience again in a different way, because this brings back a lot of memories. A lot of good memories, a lot of former teammates reaching out talking about how proud they are. To be able to be a part of that again is unbelievably special.
“On a personal and professional level, you always want to win, and this is getting to the point where you’re at the highest level, where the program was in the past, and where we knew we could be. It really solidifies all of the hard work and effort on the back side as coaches as well that we’ve put in since last January with this group. All of it is just unbelievably meaningful and special, and it’s a credit to these guys because they bought in and understood, and they also started to believe what they were capable of in a very special way.”