Creighton University
Villanova
Men's Soccer Hosts Villanova On Saturday Night For First BIG EAST Home Match
9/26/2019 3:20:00 PM | Men's Soccer
Bluejays have won five of their last six matches, including four victories at Morrison Stadium
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Creighton plays its first home BIG EAST match of the season on Saturday against Villanova.
Follow the Match
Saturday's match will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network, which can be streamed on Twitter (@BIGEASTChamps), YouTube
(youtube.com/BIGEASTConference) or Caffeine TV (www.caffeine.tv/bedn). Â Saturday's match will also be televised locally by Cox/YurView (channel 1013 on Cox HD).
Live stats will be provided via StatBroadcast.
Links to live stats and video streams can be found on the Creighton Men's Soccer schedule page.
Updates will be provided on Twitter (@CreightonMSOC), Facebook (Facebook.com/CreightonSoccer) and Instagram (CreightonMSOC).
Scouting Creighton (5-2-1, 1-0-0 BE)
The Bluejays enter Saturday with wins during five out of their last six matches, including four at home and a BIG EAST victory at Marquette.Â
Luke Haakenson leads Creighton with four goals after a two-goal performance against Tulsa on Tuesday night. Four other Bluejays each have a pair of goals.Â
Musa Qongo paces the team with three assists while six other players each have two.Â
Creighton averages 1.79 goals per match, while Paul Kruse and Collin Valdivia have combined for a 1.64 goals against average.
Kruse is 2-1-1, but has not played since Sept. 9, while Valdivia claims three victories, including a shutout against Marquette during Creighton's BIG EAST lid-lifter last week.Â
Head coach Johnny Torres is in his first year at the helm of the Bluejays after spending 12 years as an assistant coach.
Scouting Villanova (5-2-1, 0-0-1 BE)
The Wildcats earned a 1-0 win against George Washington on Tuesday afternoon for the team's sixth shutout of the season.Â
Villanova earned a 0-0 draw at DePaul during its BIG EAST opener last week.Â
Senior goalkeeper Carson Williams has allowed only two goals and owns a 0.24 goals against average, the best mark in the BIG EAST, while playing all 752 minutes for Villanova.
Freshman Lyam MacKinnon paces the Wildcats' offense with eight points from two goals and four assists.Â
Six out of Villanova's eight matches have finished exactly 1-0, with the Wildcats posting a 4-2 record during those contests.Â
Tom Carlin is in his 12th season as head coach of Villanova.
Series History Against Wildcats
Creighton leads the all-time series against Villanova, 4-2.Â
The Bluejays are 2-1 at Morrison Stadium against the Wildcats.Â
Creighton earned a 1-0 victory at Villanova last season, as Luke Haakenson delivered the game winning goal during the 69th minute.Â
Goals, Goals and More Goals
Creighton outlasted Tulsa 4-3 in double overtime on Tuesday night, as the Bluejays and Golden Hurricane combined to tie a Morrison Stadium record with seven combined goals.
Creighton defeated Drake 6-1 in 2017 and the Bluejays downed Central Arkansas 6-1 in 2006 during the other two times a combined seven goals were scored at Morrison (opened in 2003).Â
Tulsa's three goals also tied the most by a Creighton opponent at Morrison (also Saint Louis, 2012; Indiana, 2010; Tulsa, 2007).
Tuesday also marked the first time Creighton won a home game while allowing three or more goals since a 5-3 win against Evansville on Nov. 9, 2001.Â
A total of 21 goals have been scored during five matches played at Morrison Stadium this season. Only 20 goals were scored during 11 matches at Morrison Stadium last season.Â
An average of 4.2 combined goals have been scored, which would break the previous best mark of 3.3 goals per match, set in 2004.Â
A total of 40 goals have been scored during 11 combined men's and women's matches at Morrison Stadium this year, which matches the total scored during 18 matches played at Morrison in 2018.Â
Bluejays Reverse Overtime Woes
Creighton notched a double overtime victory on Tuesday against Tulsa for the Bluejays' first overtime victory since Sept. 19, 2017 (also against Tulsa).Â
Creighton entered Tuesday winless in its last seven overtime matches (two losses, five ties), including all five last season (0-2-3).Â
The Bluejays are just 5-9-14 during overtime matches since joining the BIG EAST in 2013.Â
Yudai Tashiro's Game Winner Featured
Yudai Tashiro converted the golden goal during Creighton's 4-3 double overtime victory against Tulsa on Tuesday night.
The Bluejay senior blasted a shot into the roof of the goal from the top of the six-yard box after receiving a quick pass on an indirect free kick by Kuba Polat.Â
As of Thursday afternoon, a Tweet by @CreightonMSOC featuring a video highlight of Tashiro's goal had 111 retweets, 600 likes and over 50,000 impressions (times seen on Twitter).Â
The highlight was also picked up by the official NCAA Division I Soccer Twitter account and Deadspin, earned Wednesday's No. 3 spot on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays on Snapchat and even found its way onto ESPN's show "Highly Questionable."
Six In September
Creighton is currently 5-2 during month of September, including 4-1 at Morrison Stadium.
With a win on Saturday, the Bluejays would tally their seventh season with six or more wins during the month of September since 2003.
Creighton is also seeking their fifth win at Morrison during September, which would match the most by the squad. The Bluejays also had five wins at Morrison during the month of September in 2015, 2011 and 2004.Â
Luke Haakenson Season-High Goal TotalÂ
Senior Luke Haakenson already has four goals this season, which is a new individual season-high during his four-year Bluejay career.
Haakenson tallied three during each of the past two seasons.Â
He also owns two game winners this season, which also matches his game-winner total during each of 2018 and 2017.Â
The Maple Grove, Minnesota native currently owns 11 career goals as a Bluejay, including six game-winning tallies.Â
Fortress Morrison
Creighton is 140-26-21 overall at Morrison Stadium (opened in 2003), including a 4-1-0 mark this year.
The Bluejays finished 2018 with a 6-2-3 record at home and owned shutouts during six of those 10 matches.
Creighton has never lost consecutive matches at Morrison Stadium during the same season.Â
Creighton's loss at Morrison Stadium against No. 17 Virginia Tech to open the 2017 season followed the team's loss at home to end the 2016 campaign (2-1 vs. Providence), marking the first time since 1985 that Creighton had lost consecutive home matches.
The Bluejays are 22-1-3 in their next home match following a home loss at Morrison, including an 0-0-2 mark last season and 1-0-0 record this year.Â
Creighton is 58-11-8 at Morrison Stadium since the start of 2013 when the program joined the BIG EAST.Â
