The 2019 edition of the “Dodge Street Derby” had everything you’d expect to see if you were one of the more than 4,000 people sitting behind the ad-covered concrete barriers that surround the pitch at Morrison Stadium.
Before the whistles: cleanly played soccer.
After the whistles: headbutts, red cards, and players needing to be separated.
And at the end of another emotionally-charged 90 minutes between crosstown rivals Creighton and UNO, a 2-1 Bluejay victory courtesy of a tie-breaking goal by senior forward Luke Haakenson with 2:02 left in regulation to help CU bounce back from a 3-1 home loss to UC Irvine on Friday night.
The Mavericks (0-4-2) struck first in the 26th minute when senior defender Seth Rinderknecht got his head on a high, tailing free kick off the foot of senior midfielder Marcos Bautista to beat Creighton goalkeeper Collin Valdivia for a 1-0 lead.
Creighton (3-2-1) drew even 12 minutes later when senior midfielder Tor Trosten made UNO pay for failing to clear the ball out of the 18-yard box on a corner kick served in by freshman midfielder Charles Auguste. Trosten stepped in front of a UNO defender to settle the ball and fired it into the upper right corner of the net to tie the match at 1-1.
Thirty-one seconds later, UNO’s Miguel Gomez drew the first red card of the night when he head-butted Auguste near the end line on Creighton’s half of the field.
Despite having a man advantage and the wind at their backs in the second half, Creighton found it challenging to break the deadlock against UNO’s scrappy and compact defense. The Bluejays created 12 corner kicks and fired off 13 shots after halftime, but few of them challenged UNO’s junior goalkeeper Jeremy Pollard.
“Even though they were a man down they were all backed up in their 18, and it makes it very, very difficult to try and break a team when they are all in blocks,” Creighton head coach Johnny Torres said.
“We wanted make sure we came out and had patience, and didn’t try to get the second goal in the first four or five minutes if it didn’t come. We just wanted to continue to move the ball and move them, because they were very disciplined, they had a lot of desire, and they worked their tails off to try and defend.”
No one on the pitch exemplified that patience more than No. 15 in blue. It wasn’t until the tail-end of an 83-minute performance that it paid for Luke Haakenson, but he was ready when the opportunity arose.
Junior defender Musa Qongo set up the eventual game-winner with a flick into the six-yard box. Haakenson synced up his run to the near post, settled the ball, and found enough space to place it into the far right corner of the net.
“Since day one we’ve been trying to get on the same page for early service, and you saw it there,” Haakenson said of connection with the 5-foot-8 transfer from Tyler Junior College. “As soon Musa took one touch with his left foot he whipped it right away and I knew I had to be at the near post. It’s about getting to know each other and it came tonight.”
It was the fourth time this season that Creighton’s senior striker found the net, but only the second one that has actually counted after having goals “unjustly waved off,” as Johnny Torres puts it, against Wake Forest and Akron earlier in the season.
Haakenson’s 88th-minute heroics had a little bit of everything from the aforementioned patience and precision to the footwork the his head coach raved about prior to the season.
“I always joke with him that I feel like he’s got pillows tied around his feet because he’s able to bring balls down like he did on that cross,” Torres said after the match. “He took a first crack at it and was still able to control it and keep it alive to be able to finish. He’s got unbelievable feet and if we give him an opportunity in and around the 18, chances are he’s going to be able to finish it.”
“It was a tough angle. It was tight, there was a lot of traffic, and obviously when you get in those tight spaces you might not have the right angle … a lot of things could go there, but the important thing was he kept the ball alive with his touch.”
The win over their rivals concluded a four-match home stand for Torres’ Jays. They will now open up Big East play on the road on Friday, September 20 when they take on the Marquette team that ended their season in an epic penalty kick shootout over 10 months ago. First touch between the Bluejays and Golden Eagles (2-1-1) is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. at Valley Fields in Milwaukee.
