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Creighton Men’s Soccer Moves to 5-0-1 After Two Wins in Jesuit Invitational

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After a pair of wins over the holiday weekend in the Jesuit Invitational at Morrison Stadium, and a 3-0 week, Creighton Men’s Soccer improved to 5-0-1 on the season.

“It’s a special event to be able to get three three Jesuit institutions together to give back to the community a little bit,” head coach Johnny Torres said. “It’s great to be able to show our guys that there’s more than sport, right? And to be able to come together through sport for the community for service of others is amazing. It’s a nice feeling knowing we went 2 and 0 at the Jesuit Invitational.”

CU Scores Twice in Final 10 Minutes to Beat Gonzaga 2-0

[Box Score]

After the Bluejay women got a game-winning goal in the 89th minute from Sarah Hyde to win 1-0, the nightcap of Socctoberfest saw the men’s team get the game-winning goal in the 81st minute. That goal from Matthew Reed, marking his third straight match with a goal, was all the scoring they’d need after another clean sheet from backup goaltender Amari Thompson.

For the first 20 minutes or so, Creighton’s offensive attack was humming even though they weren’t able to capitalize, and they had two shots on goal in the first five minutes alone. They were able to penetrate deep into Gonzaga’s defense and put pressure on them with great ball movement. But then the Bulldogs adjusted their defense and changed the momentum of the match.

“They were plugging up lanes, being (more) resilient, getting down and defending well,” Torres explained. “They started frustrating us and we lost a little bit of the control of the match. I thought we made a good adjustment in the second half to take control back.”

Part of that adjustment was to continue being aggressive even though it didn’t pay off in the short-term, believing that eventually their depth and conditioning would win out on a swelteringly-hot night. It took until late in the match, but eventually, that strategy paid dividends.

“To me it seemed like with 15 minutes left, we had a little bit more more gas in the tank than they did,” Torres said. “And man, I’m just so proud of the guys to be able to come out and and produce. This was a collective effort.”

For that strategy to work, your defense has to hold on the other end, and Thompson continued to be an impenetrable force. In three matches with Thompson starting in place of Matthew Hudson, the Jays have won all three and allowed just one goal.

“I’ve always said we want to recruit guys that can play in any given moment. A lot of guys that are sitting the bench for us could be starters elsewhere,” Torres said. “Amari was patient, resilient, very very hardworking and he’s seizing his opportunity at the moment. He’s playing very well, giving us confidence at the back. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

“It was unfortunate for Hudson, but we’re a team. We work as a group and it’s always really next man up,” Thompson added. “I was excited to get my opportunity, excited to be able to help the team and thankfully I’ve been able to do what I do. I’m just really grateful.”

In the 86th minute, the Jays got an insurance goal when Brady Bragg finished a corner kick from Carter Derksen.

The 2-0 win on Socctoberfest in front of 3,500 fans left a lasting impression on Thompson. “It was electric tonight,” he said afterward. “It’s unreal. Nothing like it.”

Torres made a point of telling his team to give the big Socctoberfest crowd a reason to come back and see them play again.

“Really really happy for the boys to be able to shine in front of their community. It was great to see the community come out and support us tonight,” Torres said afterward. “The message before the game was, hey, let’s give them a brand of football that they are proud of and hopefully we captivate some new fans to come out the rest of the season. I’m really happy for the guys. I also want to commend Gonzaga on a very well played match, they’re a very good team, a stingy team.”

Highlights and Interviews:

CU Races Out to Early Lead, Beats Santa Clara 4-1

[Box Score]

Monday night, the Jays didn’t need late-match heroics to win. They got three goals in the first half, with the first coming in the 13th minute when freshman Carter Tavares maneuvered through the Santa Clara defense and created a shot for Angel Lopez. Actually, maneuvered is underselling it — he fought through three defenders who did everything except tackle him to try and stop the ball from advancing, but Taveras somehow maintained possession and set up Lopez for the shot.

In the 30th minute, they got a second goal on one of the prettiest exchanges of the season (so far). From Jordan Igwenma to Allan Juarez and back again, then to Ayden Kokoszka for the shot on goal, the Jays clinically dissected the Bronco defense and left them spinning.

With two minutes left in the half, a shot by Toraji Narazaki was blocked but not taken out of play — and Igwenma gathered it, juked a defender out of the way, then banged in a goal before the Broncos’ goaltender could recover.

Early in the second, Reed tacked on a fourth goal — his fourth straight match with at least one goal — for a 4-0 Bluejay lead. It was his team-leading fifth goal of the season, putting him just one goal off of Duncan McGuire’s record-setting pace from 2022.

All of those goals made goalkeeper Matthew Hudson’s return to the starting lineup easier. After missing the last three matches due to injury, he returned on Monday night and had two saves in 65 minutes. With a 4-0 lead, Torres took the opportunity to get extended minutes for Clayton Brooks in goal, and in 25 minutes he had one save and allowed the lone Santa Clara goal of the night.

It’s the first time the Jays have been unbeaten through six matches since the 2015 team won its first 15 games, and just the sixth time in the last 30 years that Creighton has started a season unbeaten through the first six matches. How did the previous five end up? Pretty well — three College Cup appearances and two Elite Eights.

  • 1996 – College Cup
  • 2000 – National Runner-Up
  • 2011 – College Cup
  • 2014 – Elite 8
  • 2015 – Elite 8

It’s also the second-most goals through six games since Torres’ playing career started 32 years ago (sorry to point out it’s been that long, Johnny, but in the interest of full disclosure I watched those teams play at Tranquility Park as a student at CU, so I’m telling on myself with that fact, too.)

  • 2022: 23
  • 2026: 22
  • 1998: 18
  • 1995: 17

And it’s the largest goal-differential after six games since 1994 when Torres’ playing career began.

  • 2026: +16
  • 2022: +15
  • 2011: +14
  • 1996: +13
  • 1998: +12
  • 2015: +12

The only unbeaten teams in the country that have played 6 matches and won at least 5 wins are No. 1 Stanford (6-0-0), No. 3 SMU (5-0-1), No. 6 Indiana (5-0-1), and No. 23 Creighton (5-0-1). All of that has earned the endorsement of the winningest coach in program history, as Bob Warming called them “special” in this reply to WBR’s Matt DeMarinis on Twitter:

Highlights and Interviews:

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