Men's Soccer Hosts South Florida For Socctoberfest On Friday Night

Friday, Sept. 8 | South Florida at Creighton | Omaha, Neb. | 7:30 p.m. (CST)

Up Next
Creighton returns to Morrison Stadium and hosts South Florida as part of Socctoberfest 2017 on Friday night.

Follow The Match
Friday's match will be broadcast on FOX Sports Go, which can be found at FOXSportsGo.com and on the FOX Sports Go app. Donny Baarns will handle the play-by-play, while Rob Simms will provide color commentary.

The match will also feature a Spanish radio broadcast on La Nueva (99.5 FM & 1020 AM in the Omaha area and online: http://player.listenlive.co/49031/es).

Live stats for the contest can be found at Creighton.Statbroadcast.com.

Bluejay fans can also stay updated through the Creighton men's soccer Twitter feed: Twitter.com/CreightonMSoc.

Scouting Creighton
The Bluejays split a pair of matches during their first road trip of the season. Creighton fell 3-0 at No. 1 Stanford before winning 3-0 at Cal.

Three different Bluejays scored during the victory over the Golden Bears (Noah Franke, Ricky Lopez-Espin, Luke Haakenson).

Joel Rydstrand currently leads the team with two assists, and led the squad with seven last year.

Michael Kluver has started all four matches in goal for the Bluejays and owns one shutout and one combined clean sheet. Kluver, a fifth-year senior, did not start a contest before this season.

Creighton returned eight starters, including 2017 MAC Hermann Trophy watch list forward Ricky Lopez-Espin, following a third consecutive appearance in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Lopez-Espin, a 2016 NSCAA All-Great Lakes Region Second Team selection, owns 19 career goals, the most of any active Bluejay.

Last Time Out
Creighton opened its road schedule with a pair of contests in the Bay Area against No. 1 Stanford and Cal.

The Bluejays fell to the Cardinal 3-0 on Friday night before defeating the Golden Bears 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.

Noah Franke, Ricky Lopez-Espin and Luke Haakenson each scored for Creighton against Cal as head coach Elmar Bolowich picked up his 97th victory at Creighton, moving him into sole possession of second place on the program's all-time wins list.

Scouting South Florida
The Bulls lost a pair of matches this past weekend against a pair of ranked opponents. South Florida lost 3-2 in overtime to then-No. 17 Butler and 3-0 to then-No. 7 Indiana at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in Bloomington, Indiana.

Overall, the Bulls are 1-2 after picking up a season-opening win at home against Lipscomb (Aug. 28).

Bradley Farias leads the team with two goals, while Adrian Billhardt and Gonzalo Rodriguez each have two assists to pace South Florida.

The Bulls have outshot their oppenents 48-33 to open the season and averaged 16.0 shots per match.

Series History vs. Bulls
Creighton leads the all-time series against South Florida 2-0-0.

The Bluejays defeated the Bulls 1-0 in overtime during the Third Round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament at Morrison Stadium. The match had to be pushed back a day because of a snow storm in the Omaha area.

Creighton also defeated South Florida 3-1 on Sept. 27, 1991 during the Golden Panther Invite in Miami, Florida.

Bolowich Moves Into Second on Wins List
Head coach Elmar Bolowich took over sole possession of second on Creighton's all-time wins list with a 3-0 victory over Cal on Sunday. Bolowich is 97-31-12 as head man of the Bluejays since taking over before the 2011 season.

Bolowich passed Bret Simon, who coached at Creighton from 1995-2000 and was inducted into the Creighton Athletics Hall of Fame on April 23, 2017.

Bolowich now trails only Bob Warming on Creighton's all-time wins list.

Below is a list of the winningest coaches in Bluejay soccer history.

Coach   W-L-T   Years with program
Bob Warming   190-61-34   1990-94, 2001-09
Elmar Bolowich    97-31-12   2011-Present
Bret Simon   96-26-8   1995-2000

Socctoberfest Success
Friday is Creighton's sixth annual Socctoberfest celebration.

The Bluejays are a perfect 5-0 during Socctoberfest matches with wins over Bradley, Columbia, Western Illinois, Cal State Northridge and Penn.

The Bluejays picked up a 3-0 victory against Penn during last year's Socctoberfest, which included a two-goal match by Joel Rydstrand.

Large Special Event Crowds
After drawing nearly 2,000 fans at the inagural Socctoberfest, Creighton has averaged 4,162 fans during the past four events, including two of the largest crowds in program history.

Date   Opponent/Result   Attendance
10/20/12   Bradley, W 1-0   1,843
9/6/13   Columbia, W 3-1   5,102*
9/5/14   Western Illinois, W 1-0   3,750
9/4/15   Cal State Northridge, W 2-1   4,907#
9/9/16   Penn, W 3-0   2,888
*9th-largest crowd in Creighton history
#10th-largest crowd in Creighton history

Fortress Morrison
Creighton is 124-23-17 overall at Morrison Stadium, including a 9-2-2 mark at home during the 2016 season.

Creighton has never lost consecutive matches at Morrison Stadium during the same season (since 2003).

The Bluejays' loss at Morrison Stadium against No. 17 Virginia Tech to open the 2017 season followed the team's loss at home to end last season (2-1 vs. Providence), marking the first time since 1985 that Creighton had lost consecutive home matches (spanning across two seasons).

Creighton is 1-1-0 at home so far this season.

Three Is The Magic Number
Creighton finished 9-0-0 when scoring three or more goals last season.

The Jays have scored three goals once so far during the 2017 season (3-0 W at Cal).

The Bluejays have won their last 43matches when scoring three or more goals, dating back to a 3-3 tie against Drake on Nov. 7, 2009.

Creighton has scored three or more goals 223 times in program history while going 219-1-3 in those matches.

The one loss came during the 1990 season. The Bluejays fell to Missouri State 5-4 in overtime.

Overtime Victory
Creighton's 1-0 victory over Grand Canyon (Aug. 27) in double overtime marked the Bluejays' first win during a match that went extra time since Sept. 21, 2013 against No. 7 St. John's (1-0, 2OT).

Creighton's previous 13 overtime matches prior to Aug. 27 had resulted in either a draw or loss (five losses, eight draws).

The Bluejays are 9-5-12 during matches that needed extra time under the direction of Elmar Bolowich (since start of 2011).

One Goal Makes the Difference
Before the Bluejays 2-0 loss to No. 17 Virginia Tech, each of Creighton's last 24 losses had been by a single goal, including every setback during the past four seasons.

Creighton has fallen behind by two goals just six times in 140 matches under Elmar Bolowich, and lost by two or more goals just four times (twice during 2017).

The Bluejays' last two-goal loss before the season-opener came on Sept. 25, 2012 at Tulsa (2-0).

Rare Defensive Mishap
Creighton allowed three goals during regulation time on Friday against No. 1 Stanford (L 0-3) for the first time since 2013 when the Bluejays fell to Seton Hall 3-2.

Since Elmar Bolowich took over as head coach in 2011, Creighton has allowed three goals during regulation only three times and five times overall.

Prior to Friday, Creighton had not trailed by three goals at any point during a match coached by Elmar Bolowich (138 consecutive matches).

Friday marked the Bluejays' first three-goal loss since Nov. 10, 2006 (at Washington, L 0-3).

Men's Soccer Hosts South Florida For Socctoberfest On Friday Night

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Noah Franke

Luke Haakenson

Michael Kluver

Ricky Lopez-Espin

Joel Rydstrand