Nebraska-Omaha struck first, Creighton answered, and everything before, after, and in between kept the Labor Day crowd of 4,766 at Morrison Stadium constantly entertained as the Bluejays and Mavericks played to a 1-1 draw after 110 minutes of soccer on Monday night.
Sharing the same field as the Bluejays for the first time as a Division 1 program, Nebraska-Omaha didn’t take long to bring their large contingent of fans to their feet with an incredible long-distance strike just 12:38 into the match.
After a Creighton foul on the right flank just outside the 18-yard box, Maverick senior forward Fazlo Alihodzic beat Creighton senior goalkeeper Alex Kapp to the near post. The ball drilled the top half of the post and dropped in the far side of the goal to put the visitors ahead 1-0.
“What an incredible strike by Fazlo coming in,” Maverick head coach Jason Mims said. “That was a ‘golazo’, what a goal. Really fun to see.”
The Bluejays tried to answer quickly and got a golden opportunity to do so in the 17th minute when senior midfielder Myles Englis was taken down as he was crossing through the Nebraska-Omaha box. Junior left back Lucas Stauffer lined up to take the penalty kick for Creighton, but his shot to the left side was swallowed up by Maverick junior goalkeeper Joseph Ghitis to keep the game at 1-0.
Creighton kept up the pressure for the rest of the first half, out-shooting the Mavericks 6-2, and producing five corner kicks to UNO’s three. But the Mavericks were the better team in the air, making it difficult for the Bluejays to create any dangerous chances on set pieces.
“Obviously they were very strong in the air,” Creighton head coach Elmar Bolowich said. “They have a couple of strong boys in the back line, and they were defending really well with a great level of commitment, so it was really hard for us to find the little gaps and the timing to get in front of their defenders to put one or the other away.”
Though they struggled with the aerial game, thanks to the ground game it only took a few minutes before the Bluejays found the equalizer once the second half started. Junior midfielder Noah Franke terrorized the Maverick defense on the wing all night long, and he was the catalyst for the game-tying goal in the 52nd minute. Franke got into open space and played a perfect ball through the Nebraska-Omaha defense hitting senior midfielder, and team captain, Ricardo Perez in stride. Perez took a touch to his right to beat the keeper before drilling a shot into the back of the net to even the match at 1-1 with 38:33 remaining in regulation.
“Noah had a lot of space on that side, and with his speed he was really taking advantage of that,” Perez said. “On that play I just saw the gap, and fortunately he made a great pass.
“I figured the keeper would come out. I didn’t really look up, but I took a touch to the side hoping to bait him so I could put it past him, and it happened.”
The Mavericks had a few scoring chances after Perez tied the match, but for the most part Creighton dictated the action. After the game-tying goal, the Bluejays out-shot UNO, 11-4, and held a 6-2 advantage in corner kicks, but they never could find another one of those Franke-to-Perez connections to get the game-winner.
“I thought in the second half we really played outstanding soccer,” Bolowich said. “We came back in the game, tied it up, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to win.”
Despite having to settle for a draw at home, Bolowich had a glass half full approach after the match, especially after seeing the inspired play of his junior right winger in Noah Franke.
“He stepped it up. He’s finding his rhythm and he’s coming back to his strength from last year,” he said. “It took him a little bit to get going. The first 20 minutes he was a little bit rusty, but then I always feel when you leave him alone that’s the best thing you can do. He really tries to find his rhythm and find his game, and he was definitely a factor for us tonight. He was a big threat.”
Franke played every second of the 110-minute match, giving his head coach a good, long look at how he performs in different formations that the coaching continues to tinker with in order to find the best way to get the attacking third of the field playing at a high level.
“I think this formation suits him,” Bolowich said. “I think it suits us in general. We have a little bit more threat going forward. It’s just a matter of now in the final third to calm down and make that one play that will break the ice. At times we rushed it a little bit, and at other times we were too hesitant. So it was either one or the other. It wasn’t really clicking.”
Both sides felt they should have come out with a win instead of a tie, but one thing they both agreed on was that putting their teams on the field in front 4,766 fans — the 11th-largest home crowd in Creighton men’s soccer history — was a great way to introduce this cross-town rivalry to the Omaha community.
“5,000 people here this early in the season — in an environment like this — I thought it was incredible,” Mims, a former long-time Creighton assistant coach, said. “Players couldn’t hear instructions from either coaches because it was that loud. I thought it was a great showcase as far as the atmosphere goes.”
His counterpart across the midfield line was in complete agreement.
“The crowd was outstanding,” Bolowich said. “I thought it was fantastic to have our students here. It was also fantastic for Omaha to bring their fans over. That’s what a rivalry is supposed to be. They made some noise. Our people made some noise. It was a great atmosphere for both teams to play in.”
The Bluejays moved their regular-season record to 1-1-1 with the tie. They will return to the pitch on Friday night at Morrison Stadium when they host the Pennsylvania Quakers on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. as part of Creighton University’s fifth annual Socctoberfest.