Timo Pitter started the scoring for the Bluejays on Tuesday night (Spomer/WBR) CLICK TO BUY
The final score at Morrison Stadium on Tuesday night read 4-0, and to travelers who passed by the stadium after the match, it might have looked like just another night at the office for the top-ranked Creighton men’s soccer team. However, Missouri State didn’t exactly fold up at kick off and let the Bluejays run the show.
Both teams played a fairly even match in between the 18-yard boxes for about the first 20 minutes of action. The Bears (3-3-2) came into the day allowing opponents to take 7.6 shots per match, while Creighton entered the game on Tuesday night giving up only 6.3 shots per contest. As the match entered it looked neither team was even going to connect on a pass inside the penalty box, let alone get a chance to put a shot on frame.
That all changed in a hurry, as the explosive Creighton offense found the back of the net four times in a span of 11 minutes and 23 seconds. Just as they did in Saturday’s 4-2 come-from-behind win late on the road against Seton Hall where they scored three goals in about six minutes of action, the Bluejays had nothing going in the attacking third against Missouri State, then all of a sudden it turned into a rout.
“You have to be a little bit opportunistic in that case, because that team they were very committed to defending, and getting back quickly,” Creighton head coach Elmar Bolowich said of how his team adjusted to Missouri State’s tactics around the 18-yard box.
“We tried to open them up for a little bit more space by dropping a little deeper, and that allowed us more space to get into the attacking third, and then we were fortunate with the first shot that we took — it was a little deflection I believe — to catch them off guard.”
Held without a shot for the first 19 minutes and change, senior midfielder Timo Pitter lit up Creighton’s brand new scoreboard at Morrison Stadium with the team’s first shot and first goal of the match. After some good combination play from junior midfielder Myles Englis and sophomore defender Lucas Stauffer, Englis sent a crossing pass to Pitter who sent a shot on goal from just inside the edge of the 18-yard box. The shot deflected off of Missouri State sophomore defender Kevin Birk and redirected into inside the left post to put the Bluejays up 1-0 in the 20th minute.
After not getting any shots early on, the goals started to come after Pitter’s strike once the Jays became a little more opportunistic in the attacking third.
“It’s not necessarily just about putting one on goal to see what happens. It was still a good shooting opportunity,” Bolowich said. “It just so happened that the defender got in the way a little bit, and deflected it. Normally out of that position you want to shoot. As a general rule we don’t even shoot enough. I want our guys to shoot, because you never know what happens; the keeper may not hold onto it, the ball might come off the post or whatever. You’re looking for those kind of second opportunities.”
In the 26th minute, Creighton struck again on an world-class strike from Hermann Trophy candidate Fabian Herbers. The junior from Germany lined up to take a free kick on the left flank from about 25 yards away. Herbers hit the ball over a five-man wall of Missouri State defenders, and just inside the near post and past a diving attempt from Bears sophomore goalkeeper Liam Priestley.
Herbers scored the 2nd goal on a free kick just outside the box (Spomer/WBR) CLICK TO BUY
The goal put Creighton up 2-0 and was the eighth of the season for Herbers. He also has six assists to go along with eight goals this season, and with his goal against Missouri State he became the first Bluejay to record a goal or an assists in nine straight matches since former CU standout Ethan Finlay did so back in 2010.
But the goal against the Bears almost didn’t happen. Before taking the free kick, Herbers and Pitter debated who should take that shot before Pitter eventually gave his younger teammate the green light.
“Me and Timo talked a little bit, because it was his turn to shoot it,” Herbers said. “I had a couple bad ones at Seton Hall, so it was his turn, but he said just go for one more, so I decided to shoot it. The keeper cheated a little bit I think, so I hit it into the corner. I put up my arm, so he thought I was going across. He cheated a little bit for the cross, so I put it into the corner, and it was not possible for him to get it, because it was well placed.”
Creighton’s coach, in his 27th year as a Division 1 head coach, said the free kick by Herbers is not something that a lot of players at this level can pull off.
“Very few can do that,” Bolowich said. “Especially with the technique that he shoots with. He cuts the ball with an enormous amount of spin, and an enormous amount of pace. Normally when you see guys bend balls they are floaters, but when he bends the ball the shot is coming at a real good clip.
“I don’t think [the goalkeeper] had much of a chance. Even from that distance it was really well placed.”
Herbers said he has spent a lot of time in practice working on the mechanics of that shot, and watches players such as German national team player Marco Reus to learn how to be more effective on those set piece opportunities.
“You try to watch the pros, and how they hit the ball, and you try to hit it as well as they do,” Herbers said. “The trick is that you hit the ball with top spin. If you just hit it hard it will just go up and just keep going. If you have top spin, it will go over the wall and then go down. I just try to hit it that way, and I practice to hit it that way. If you get lucky enough, and you hit it well, and it goes over the wall, then it goes it down right away. You just have to hit it hard enough and with top spin.”
Based on the reaction by Herbers and his teammates, even in the middle of a close game, they knew that was a special strike.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” the junior from Ahaus, Germany said. “You always have to be a little bit lucky that you hit it well and that the keeper cheats a little bit; if he’s in the corner he just grabs it and saves it. It was a nice goal and I was happy that it went in.”
Senior midfielder Fernando Castellanos added his second goal of the season in the 28th minute, and true freshman midfielder Evan Waldrep put the icing on the cake with his first career goal as a Bluejay in the 31st minute.
Waldrep checked in at the 29:27 mark, and one minute and 27 second later took a pass from Timo Pitter just to the right of the circle and fired a shot off a Missouri State defender and into net to end Creighton’s four-goal onslaught.
The Bluejays only took nine shots in the 90-minute match, but made the most of their limited chances by finding the back of the net four times in their five shots on goal.
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See photos from WBR photographer Mike Spomer of the victory
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With the win, Creighton improved to 9-0-0 for the third time in school history. The 1990 Creighton men’s soccer team also started 9-0-0 before playing to a 1-1 draw against Drake in their 10th match of the season. In 1993, the Bluejays went unbeaten and untied for their first 19 matches before suffering a season-ending 2-1 loss to Air Force in the NCAA Tournament, a match that took four overtimes to decide a winner.
Creighton will try to join that 1993 team by starting 10-0-0 when the return to the pitch at Morrison Stadium this Saturday, October 3 against the DePaul Blue Demons.
DePaul will bring a 1-8-0 record into their match against the Bluejays. They have lost lost their last five matches since earning their lone win of the season back on September 6th, a 4-0 result against Fordham. They have been shutout six times this season, including three times in their last five matches.
Kick-off between the Bluejays and Blue Demons is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. (CST) and will be broadcast on the Big East Digital Network.
Listen to postgame interviews with head coach Elmar Bolowich, Fabian Herbers, and Evan Waldrep