Men's Soccer Opens Season Wednesday at Loyola Chicago

Match 1 at Loyola Chicago • Wednesday, Sept. 1 • 7:00 p.m.
Creighton Bluejays at Loyola Ramblers
Loyola Soccer Park • Chicago, Ill.
Series History: Creighton leads 2-0-1

Following the Jays: Live stats and live video will be provided for Creighton's match at Loyola Chicago. Fans can access the video and live stats by following the links provided on Creighton's homepage at www.gocreighton.com.

This Week: For the second straight season, Creighton opens against Loyola on Sept. 1. Last year the squads played to a scoreless draw in Omaha, this time the Bluejays play the Ramblers in Chicago. The match will serve as the regular-season debut of new Bluejay head coach Jamie Clark. The Bluejays then return home to open up their home schedule on Saturday night, playing host to UNC Greensboro at Morrison Stadium at 7 p.m.

Exhibition Summary: Creighton won both of its exhibition matches by 2-1 scores, defeating Denver (Aug. 21) on the road and winning a home contest against nationally-ranked NAIA foe Hastings (Neb.) College last Friday. Illinois natives Andrew Duran and Greg Jordan scored for the Bluejays in Denver, while Kyle Deremer and Ethan Finlay notched the tallies at home. Sophomore transfer Jose Gomez assisted three of CU's four goals in exhibition play. Junior goalkeeper Brian Holt played 146 of the 180 minutes, logging seven saves and a 0.62 goals against average.

Scouting Creighton: Creighton narrowly missed its 18th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2009, finishing with a 7-4-5 overall record and tied for third in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 4-2-4 record. The Bluejays will look to start a new streak this fall under first-year head coach Jamie Clark. The Bluejays return 12 players and six starters from last year's squad. The Jays will need to replace three of their four starting defenders, as both Chris Schuler and Seth Sinovic were named first-team all-conference and were taken in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft after helping the Bluejays rank 18th in the NCAA with a 0.76 goals against average. Junior Ethan Finlay, a first-team all-MVC and all-region pick last year after leading the team with eight goals and 19 points, begins the season as a National Player of the Year candidate. Joining Finlay on the preseason all-MVC team are senior defender Kyle Deremer (Omaha Millard North) and sophomore forward-midfielder Dion Acoff – the 2009 MVC Freshman of the Year. Returning for his third season starting in goal for the Jays is junior Brian Holt, the CU and MVC career goals against average leader, at 0.63. Holt was the 2008 MVC Freshman of the Year and earned second-team all-MVC honors last year. Other returning starters include seniors Sergio Castillo and Josh Moran. The Bluejays will also welcome back midfielder Greg Jordan, after the sophomore redshirted last season following a knee injury suffered in the second match of the season.

Scouting Loyola: The Ramblers posted a 4-8-4 record in 2009 and finished ninth in the Horizon League with a 1-5-2 mark. This season Loyola is picked to finish fifth in the nine-team league, returning eight starters from 2009. The Ramblers went 1-1-1 in exhibition play this fall, losing to MVC newcomer SIU Edwardsville and playing to a draw with Wisconsin. Loyola's lone exhibition win came over Division II Lewis. Senior Willie Koss was a second-team all-conference player last year, and leads a five-man senior class. Goalkeeper Peter McKeown returns after playing better than 1,200 minutes last year when he posted a 0.89 goals against average and had 41 saves.

Meet the Coach: Head coach Jamie Clark begins his first season as Creighton's head coach after spending two successful seasons at Harvard in his first head coaching assignment. A former MLS player and All-American at Stanford, Clark is 26-10-1 (.716) in two seasons as a head coach, guiding Harvard to the NCAA Tournament in both of his seasons in Boston. The NSCAA Northeast Region Coach of the Year in 2009, he led the Crimson to a top-ten ranking for seven weeks and a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The 2009 Ivy League champions finished 14-4-1 overall last year.

CU-Loyola Series: The Bluejays and Ramblers have played three times – all in Omaha – with the Jays owning a 2-0-1 series advantage. CU won the first two meetings, 3-1 in 1993 and 4-2 in 2005. Last year the teams played to a scoreless draw to open the year in Omaha, despite the Bluejays out-shooting the Ramblers 22-10. Brian Holt made four saves for CU in goal last year, while Peter McKeown made five saves in net for Loyola.

Strange Season Opener: Creighton is opening the season away from Omaha for just the third time in the last 13 years and only the fourth time since the program was restarted in 1990. It is the first time the Jays are opening with a true road match since playing to a 1-1 draw at Portland to open the 2005 season. The only other time the Jays opened the season with a true road game since 1990 was at Saint Louis in 1997, when CU and SLU also played to a 1-1 tie. In 2006, the Jays opened away from Omaha with a neutral site match against Indiana (at Notre Dame), a 1-0 double overtime loss.

More Season-Opening Facts:
• Not only is Creighton opening against Loyola for the second straight season, but it marks the third straight year the Jays are opening against a fellow Jesuit institution – the Jays defeated Gonzaga 4-1 in 2008.
• Since 1990 CU has lost just two season debuts, losing 1-0 to No. 12 Indiana in 2006 and falling to No. 20 Duke on Sept. 2, 1995.
• Creighton has tied five of its last nine season openers (2001, '03, '05, '07, '09).
• The previous five Creighton head coaches are 4-1-0 in their Bluejay debut. The only head coach to lose in his debut was Bret Simon, falling to No. 20 Duke in 1995. Bob Warming won 1-0 over DePaul in his first match in 1990. (In 2001, Warming tied Memphis 0-0 in the first match of his second stint with the Jays).
• Jamie Clark is 1-1-0 in season-openers (at Harvard). Clark's team lost 3-1 at Duke in his head coaching debut in 2008 and topped Stony Brook 4-1 to open the 2009 season.

Ethan Finlay Nets Preseason Honors: Junior forward Ethan Finlay has joined a long list of former Bluejays that have been candidates for college soccer's top individual honor, as he has been named to the preseason Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy Watch List. Finlay, who has also been tabbed to Soccer America's Preseason All-America Team, led the team with eight goals and 19 points as a sophomore and is CU's active career leader with 14 goals, seven assists and 35 points. He has led the team and MVC in game-winning goals in each of his first two seasons, as nine of his 14 career goals have been game-winners. Finlay is now on the long list of National Player of the Year candidates from Creighton, including the 1997 winner and current assistant coach, Johnny Torres.

CU National Player of the Year Candidates
Year    Player
2010    Ethan Finlay
2009    Byron Dacy, Chris Schuler, Seth Sinovic
2008    Byron Dacy, Andrei Gotsmanov
2007    Byron Dacy, Matt Allen
2006    Byron Dacy
2004    Julian Nash
2003    David Wagenfuhr
2002    Mike Tranchilla
2001    Mike Tranchilla
1997    Johnny Torres (Won)
1996    Ross Paule
1993    Keith DeFini & Brian Kamler

Road Warriors: The Bluejays open the season looking to keep an impressive streak alive as they have not lost a regular-season road match since 2006. The Bluejays were 2-0-4 in true road games during the regular-season last year and are 10-0-7 in regular-season road games over the last three years (4-0-1 in 2007, 4-0-2 in 2008). CU last lost a regular-season road match on Oct. 28, 2006, a 2-1 defeat at Bradley. Since the start of the 2007 season, the Bluejays are 14-3-7 overall in matches away from Omaha, including 10-2-7 in true road matches and 4-1-0 in neutral contests.

Land of Lincoln: Starting with the season-opener, Creighton plays five matches against teams from Illinois this season. In addition to matches with Loyola, DePaul, Eastern Illinois, SIU Edwardsville and Bradley, the Bluejays will also play two matches in a tournament hosted by Bradley in Peoria, Ill., and hope to play in two more matches (potentially three) in the MVC Tournament, also hosted by Bradley this season. The Jays have two Illinois natives – Andrew Duran (Mokena) and Greg Jordan (Naperville).

Blackjack Roster: Creighton has its smallest roster since 1996, with just 21 student-athletes listed on the squad this year. The small roster is in sharp contrast to the last decade at Creighton, where the average roster size was 30.2 between 2000-09. That 1996 team had 22 players on the squad, but capped the season by appearing in the first College Cup Final Four in school history.

That's Offensive: Creighton returns its leading scorer from last year in junior Ethan Finlay. Finlay led the team with eight goals, including an MVC-best five game-winners in 2009. Beyond Finlay's 14 career goals, the remainder of the Bluejay roster has a combined six career goals – Kris Clark (2), Josh Moran (1), Dion Acoff (1), Greg Jordan (1) and Sergio Castillo (1). Of Finlay's 14 career goals, nine are game-winners. Clark is the only other active Bluejay with at least one career game-winning goal.

Fit to be Tied: Creighton tied a school record with five draws in 2009, equalling the mark set in 2007. Included in the record-tying five draws, were a school and MVC record four ties inside conference play. CU had never previously tied more than twice in MVC play and the former MVC mark of three ties in conference action was held by Vanderbilt (1997) and Drake (2006).

Senior Citizens: Creighton has four seniors on the roster this year, all of which project to be in the starting 11. Defender Kyle Deremer, a second-team all-MVC honoree in 2009, has started 33 of the 34 matches he has played in during his first two seasons at CU. Sergio Castillo, a two-time MVC All-Tournament Team selection, has started 41 of his 52 career games. Andrew Duran has been slowed by injuries throughout his career, limiting him to 19 starts in 30 matches during his first three seasons at CU. Josh Moran started 13 of 15 matches and led the team with five assists in his first year with the Jays last year, earning second-team all-MVC notice for his play.

Nine Newbies: Creighton welcomes nine newcomers to Omaha this fall, including a pair of transfers and seven freshmen. Junior Jace Peters comes to CU after starting two seasons at nearby Doane College and sophomore Jose Gomez enters after leading Cal State Fullerton in assists as a freshman. Highlighting the freshman class is U-17 and U-20 U.S. National Team member and Lincoln native, Tyler Polak. The rookie made 19 international appearances with the U-17 National Team in 2009, including playing every minutes at the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria and the CONCACAF Tournament in Mexico. Another freshman, Liam Kelly of Bellevue, Wash., is a member of the U-20 Canadian National Team Pool.

MVC Preseason Poll: For the first time since 2004, the Bluejays are not favored to win the Missouri Valley Conference as voted on by league coaches. MVC coaches have tabbed Creighton for a third-place finish, behind Evansville and defending regular-season champion Missouri State. This marks just the second time in 20 years of MVC soccer that the Jays have not been picked to finish in the top-two, as CU was tabbed third in the initial MVC preseason poll in 1991. The Bluejays, who have been picked to win The Valley 12 times, own a league record nine regular-season titles.

Welcome and Goodbye: The MVC welcomes two new affiliate men's soccer members this fall, as Southern Illinois Edwardsville and Central Arkansas join the league for the sport. This season also marks the final season that Eastern Illinois will be an affiliate of the MVC in men's soccer. The Panthers, who have been an MVC soccer affiliate since 1996, will become an affiliate member of the Summit League in 2011.

Strong Schedule: Jamie Clark inherited one of the toughest schedules in the nation this year, one that features seven teams which advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009. Akron, the 2009 NCAA runner-up, begins the season ranked No. 1 in the NSCAA, Soccer America and College Soccer News preseason polls. The Jays also play preseason No. 7 Tulsa and No. 8 UC Santa Barbara. The Jays play at UCSB – the site of this season's NCAA College Cup – on Sept. 7. MVC foe Drake, which advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals last year, is ranked 14th in the preseason NSCAA poll. CU also hosts preseason No. 20 Indiana. In addition to those five squads, the Jays also take on 2009 NCAA teams Dartmouth and Missouri State this fall.

Format Switch: The MVC will return to its typical regular-season schedule this fall, which sees teams meet just once during the season. Last year, the MVC played a double round-robing, with teams meeting twice (home and road). The Valley tournament will return to a six-team field after including just four last year. The top two seeds will earn a bye into the semifinals on Nov. 12, while the 3-6 seeds will face off in opening round play on Nov. 10. The championship will be played on Nov. 14, as all matches will be played at Bradley's Shea Stadium in Peoria, Ill.

Familiar Faces Return: Jamie Clark retained assistant coach Johnny Torres on his staff, while two other former Bluejay standouts have returned to the bench this fall. Matt Wieland, the 2003 MVC Defensive Player of the Year and 2005 NSCAA Third-Team All-American, is serving as CU's graduate manager this season. Michael Kraus, 2006 MVC Player of the Year, has returned to campus to complete his undergraduate work this semester and will be a student assistant coach for the Bluejays while finishing up his school work.

Updated & Extended Coverage: Fans will notice Creighton home matches not only have a new live stats platform, but will also benefit from Creighton's change to BCS Stats. The new live stats provider allows fans to follow the live action on their mobile device at www.gocreightonstats.com. Fans can also find more info on Bluejay athletics on Facebook at the “Official Creighton Athletics Page” and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gocreighton.

Men's Soccer Opens Season Wednesday at Loyola Chicago

Players Mentioned

Dion Acoff

Sergio Castillo

Kris Clark

Byron Dacy

Kyle Deremer

Andrew Duran

Ethan Finlay

Jose Gomez

Brian Holt

Greg Jordan

Liam Kelly

Josh Moran

Jace Peters

Tyler Polak

Chris Schuler

Seth Sinovic

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