The Butler men’s soccer team looks to shake off a nail biting conference road match against nationally ranked Xavier.

The two teams played to a scoreless tie through the first half of the match.  Xavier midfielder Andrew Jordan’s short shot to the right corner of the net at 42 minute ended the gridlock between both teams.  The goal was Jordan’s third of the season and gave the unbeaten and nationally-ranked Musketeers (9-0-2, 2-0 in A-10 play) a 1-0 advantage going into the locker room at halftime.

The two teams continued to battle through the first 30 minutes of the second half, before Butler’s Jordan Burt tied the match off an unassisted goal from 18 yards out in the 76minute of the game.

“I think the match really just came down to how you defend in your box and how you attack,” said head coach Paul Snape, “They were a bit better than us today,”

The game-winner by Xavier’s James Queree came in the 82 minute of the game; just five minutes after Butler had tied the match on a goal by junior Jordan Burt. Queree’s goal was fired from eight yards out on the left side of the goal.

“Our team is playing hard and moving the ball well, we just haven’t been able to really click on offense and then we end up making one or two costly mistakes in the back,” said senior co-captain Jared Isenthal, “We really felt we were the better team going into the game.”

Xavier finished with a slight 12-11 advantage in shots and a six-four edge in corner kicks.  Butler goalkeeper Jon Dawson, coming off a career-high nine saves at Dayton, finished with five saves, including one up close in the closing minutes of the match.

“I thought we played really well, we just lost focus. Not once but twice. We did do well coming back from a goal down but sometimes a losing score isn’t what you want to see,” said Butler goalkeeper Jon Dawson, “We really have to get it going for next week.”

The Bulldogs will open up their first home Atlantic 10 match on Friday, Oct. 12, against Richmond at the Butler Bowl.

The Butler Men’s soccer team will begin a stretch of three consecutive matches in Ohio with a non-conference game at Ohio State tonight.

Since 1998, the Bulldogs and Buckeyes have played eight games with the Buckeyes leading the series with six wins and two losses against Butler. The two teams last met at Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus, Ohio in a match on September 20, 2009.

The Bulldogs lost that game 2-1, breaking a four game win streak. But now three years later, the Bulldogs will travel once again to Columbus and head coach Paul Snape said feels good going in.

“Ohio State men’s soccer has a strong tradition of winning and they are better than their current record shows,” Snape said. “I expect it to be a physical game and a tactical battle. The boys are very excited to be playing at the famous Jesse Owens Stadium.”

After a loss and two ties, the Bulldogs finally grabbed a victory, rolling over Evansville 3-0. The win gave junior goalkeeper Jon Dawson his third shutout of the season and his second at home. Dawson said he is ready for the next step of this journey for the Bulldogs.

“We have really been clicking as a team and going to Columbus will be exactly what we need to continue our form this season,” Dawson said. “It’ll be a great game in a great environment.”

The younger players on this Bulldogs squad have seemed to step up under the leadership provided so far.

Freshman forward Jeff Atkins currently leads the Bulldogs with 6 points as the freshman has racked up two goals and two assists in the seven games he has played. Senior captain Jared Isenthal said he believes that this progress is moving the team in the right direction.

“After a great win last week, I believe this team is really coming together,” Isenthal said. “A strong week of preparation and practice has given us a good outlook forward as we go into playing a tough Big Ten opponent.”

The Butler Men’s soccer team will begin a stretch of three consecutive matches in Ohio with a non-conference game at Ohio State tonight.

Since 1998, the Bulldogs and Buckeyes have played eight games with the Buckeyes leading the series with six wins and two losses against Butler. The two teams last met at Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus, Ohio in a match on September 20, 2009.

The Bulldogs lost that game 2-1, breaking a four game win streak. But now three years later, the Bulldogs will travel once again to Columbus and head coach Paul Snape said feels good going in.

“Ohio State men’s soccer has a strong tradition of winning and they are better than their current record shows,” Snape said. “I expect it to be a physical game and a tactical battle. The boys are very excited to be playing at the famous Jesse Owens Stadium.”

After a loss and two ties, the Bulldogs finally grabbed a victory, rolling over Evansville 3-0. The win gave junior goalkeeper Jon Dawson his third shutout of the season and his second at home. Dawson said he is ready for the next step of this journey for the Bulldogs.

“We have really been clicking as a team and going to Columbus will be exactly what we need to continue our form this season,” Dawson said. “It’ll be a great game in a great environment.”

The younger players on this Bulldogs squad have seemed to step up under the leadership provided so far.

Freshman forward Jeff Atkins currently leads the Bulldogs with 6 points as the freshman has racked up two goals and two assists in the seven games he has played. Senior captain Jared Isenthal said he believes that this progress is moving the team in the right direction.

“After a great win last week, I believe this team is really coming together,” Isenthal said. “A strong week of preparation and practice has given us a good outlook forward as we go into playing a tough Big Ten opponent.”

The Butler men’s soccer team faced stiff competition Sunday, losing 2-1 to Central Arkansas in the final contest of a three-match homestand at the Butler Bowl.

The Bulldogs (1-1-2) were looking at a 2-0 deficit after the first 45 minutes.

Senior forward Ethan Miller put the Bears on the board with an unassisted strike in the 31st minute.

A little more than three minutes later, sophomore forward Daniel Sampedro scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal.

Butler attempted to turn the tables in the second half, outshooting the Bears (4-1-0) 13-1 overall, with a 6-1 advantage in shots on goal.

The Bulldogs tallied their only goal when sophomore defender Brandon Fricke sent a crossing pass to junior midfielder Adam Glanzer, who knocked a header into the upper right corner of the net.

Central Arkansas senior goalkeeper Cody Gibson and the Bears were able to hold on to the lead, with Gibson stopping five shots.

Severe weather brought an early end to Butler’s match against winless Northern Kentucky at the Bowl on Friday.

The non-conference match was halted in the 39th minute because of lightning and was eventually canceled. The contest could be rescheduled for a later date.

The Bulldogs were holding a one-goal advantage after a goal by junior Jordan Burt from 18 yards out.

Butler recorded four shots compared to two for the Norse.

Northern Kentucky is currently playing its first season as an NCAA Division I program.

The Norse are members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Northern Kentucky is currently 0-5 on the season.

The Bulldogs will face South Florida in the opening round of the Akron Tournament Friday.

Photo by Heather Iwinski

The Butler men’s soccer team will continue its three-game homestand when it takes on Northern Kentucky Friday.

The Bulldogs (1-0-3) got their first win on Aug. 28, beating cross-town foe Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis 2-0.

Northern Kentucky is a NCAA Division I team for the first time this season. It is a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

The Norse are 0-4 on the season with losses to Green Bay, Milwaukee, Radford and High Point.

Opponents have outscored NKU 10-1 this season.

Last year, as a Division II program, the Norse finished the season with a 14-5 record. They advanced to the Midwest Regional Championship game for the fourth time in five years.

Butler has played NKU twice in its history. The first time was in 1989, and the second in 1990. The Bulldogs won both matchups, 2-0 and 3-0, respectively.

Published Sept. 5, 2012

This Saturday, Butler’s football team will be taking part in its first game under lights since the early-1940s.

This is an important step for Butler from an athletic standpoint.

With the university’s jump to the Atlantic 10 Conference last summer, school officials would probably like to prove that they can host athletic events under a variety of circumstances (despite the fact the football team will not be part of the A-10).

Saturday’s game could help the flexibility of the football team’s scheduling in the future as well.

However, moving some football games and, before them, some men’s and women’s soccer matches to an under-the-lights setting could also pose a potential problem for the university.

Butler attempted its first athletic triple-header last September. The football team and both soccer squads had contests in the Butler Bowl on the same day.

The triple-header was likely a new and, at times, exhausting expeience for some members of Butler’s athletics department. Running one athletic event in a given day requires a number of different operations and activities to take place in very short amounts of time.

Doing those same activities three times over the course of eight to 10 hours would likely be draining.

Accordingly, the athletics department has not scheduled three events in the Bowl on a single day this academic year.

However, two separate weekends this month will see a great amount of athletic activity in short periods of time.

The first of these is this weekend, and that schedule reads as follows:

Friday, Sept. 7
Volleyball—Butler Classic, starts 11 a.m.
Men’s soccer—Butler vs. Northern Kentucky, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 8
Football—Butler vs. Franklin, 6 p.m.
Volleyball—Butler Classic, starts 6 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 9
Men’s soccer—Butler vs. Central Arkansas, 1 p.m.

With no rest for the weary, Butler also has the following schedule assembled for Saturday, Sept. 29:

Football—Butler vs. Dayton, 1 p.m.
Women’s soccer—Butler vs. Saint Louis, 7 p.m.
Volleyball—Butler vs. Duquesne, 7 p.m.

It is great that Butler is finding opportunities for fans to take in multiple sporting events in a given day, but I see two major issues with this sort of scheduling.

The first lies in overextending and straining the athletics department staff.

I cannot speak for those within the department. I cannot say those individuals were exhausted at the conclusion of the triple-header last year, that they were unable to rise from their respective beds the next morning.

One might think that taking care of the operations and behind-the-scenes work for three athletic events in a single day—especially with one being the school’s first athletic contest under lighting since World War II—might be a bit stressful, though.

So this year, the staff gets to run that gauntlet twice in four weeks.

It may prove to be even more difficult this time around. Some teams have contests scheduled over each other.

Starting the finale of volleyball’s Butler Classic and the first night football game in more than 70 years at the same time cannot possibly benefit an athletics department staff that will have dealt with earlier volleyball and men’s soccer action less than 24 hours prior.

Slotting the women’s soccer and volleyball teams into the same starting time just hours after the conclusion of a football game is potentially problematic as well.

And then there are the fans that, on the surface, benefit from receiving the opportunity to view multiple sporting events in a given day.

There is clearly an issue with attendance at Butler’s fall athletic events. Figures are not high, and the stands of the Bowl and Hinkle Fieldhouse are nowhere near full during such events.

That is why it is difficult for me to understand how scheduling events on top of each other will fix this. Fans cannot be in two places at the same time.

Also, if a day is filled with events, the casual observer will probably only attend the first on the list. It is simply overwhelming to attend three athletic contests in one day.

Overwhelming is the key word in this discussion. If stacked scheduling is some sort of initiation into the A-10, the Butler community will have to live with being overwhelmed.

Otherwise, the school should realize that it might be taking on more than it can handle.

The Butler men’s soccer team picked up its first win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis last night at the Butler Bowl.

Scoring for the Bulldogs were sophomore Brandon Fricke and senior Tyler Pollock.

Both teams came out strong to start the game and continued to take their chances at goal with no luck until Fricke broke the tie at the 55th minute of the match.

Fricke scored the goal off a free kick on a pass from Zach Steinberger and then rocketed the ball from 20 yards out past Jaguar goalkeeper Eduardo Cortes into the bottom left corner of the net. It was his first goal of the season and the second of his career.

The Bulldogs added another goal in the 77^th minute when senior Tyler Pollock took a cross from freshman Jeff Adkins and laid the ball into the corner of the net from 15 yards out.

“I thought tonight we started off real well. We had a great game plan and we really wanted impose our attacking philosophy on the game.” coach Paul Snape said about last night’s contest, “I think we created some great chances and we were patient and it worked for us tonight.”

Junior Austin Oldham had a team-high four shots, including two shots on goal for the Bulldogs.

Adkins added three shots for the Bulldogs in the match.

Junior goalkeeper Jon Dawson continued his presence in the goal for Butler as he earned his second shutout of the season, while racking up three saves in the second half.

The victory came after two consecutive draws in the VCU Nike Classic last weekend.

Butler ended its season opener against College of William & Mary in a draw after 110 minutes of play. Both teams combined for 33 shots in the match and 12 of those attempts were on goal.

“I believe a big trip like this one to Virginia really helped us feel like we are a big program,” Dawson said. “A draw wasn’t really the goal we had in mind going into the tournament, but we’ll take it and it will help us get better throughout the course of this season.”

Butler moved on to their second game of the weekend as it took on Bucknell last Sunday.

The Bulldogs scored their first goal early and continued that advantage through the first half and through the first 13 minutes of play in the second period.

Dawson shined again in the second match saving two of three shots on goal while junior Austin Oldham led the Bulldogs with eight shots, including four shots on goal, in the weekend’s two matches.

The Bison tied the match in the 58^th minute when a throw-in by Mayowa Alli ended in a ricochet shot off a Butler defender and into the Bulldogs’ goal.

The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

The Bulldogs will continue their three-match homestand against Northern Kentucky on Friday, Sept. 7. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Butler Bowl.

The Butler men’s soccer team hosted St. Louis in an exhibition match Sunday and came away with a 4-2 victory.

The Bulldogs took an early lead with first-half goals from freshman Zach Steinberger and sophomore newcomer Nico Oliverio.

“We are usually a team that likes coming from behind, so to get that early lead was crucial,” Steinberger said.

Steinberger added another goal in the second half to push Butler to a 3-0 lead.

The Billikens then tallied two quick goals to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to one.

Oliverio came through again after the St. Louis goals, scoring his second goal of the game and giving Butler a 4-2 lead.

The Bulldogs will continue their spring season with another exhibition match Friday.

This time, Butler will face Michigan State in Fort Wayne.

Spring has arrived on campus, but that does not mean the school’s fall athletic teams are resting easy.

The Butler men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball teams are currently participating in spring seasons even though their regular seasons are still months away.

The men’s and women’s soccer teams are both in the middle of month-long exhibition seasons that run from late March to the end of April.

The men’s squad took on Oakland last Saturday and has four games remaining this spring. The women’s team has already faced three teams and will take on Indiana on April 21.

Men’s soccer coach Paul Snape said playing games against other schools in the offseason gives players a chance to face off against different competitors.

“The problem is when you play against each other, you can get stale,” Snape said, “so playing other teams is a great opportunity to stay fresh.”

Junior forward Katie Griswold, a member of the women’s soccer team, said spring games help the team plan strategy for the fall season.

“[Spring games] let our coaches see what we need to work on, what will best suit the team and which formations will fit our team best,” Griswold said.

The volleyball team has matches scheduled on each of the first three Saturdays in April.

Junior outside hitter Rachel Barber said that the younger members of the team take advantage of the spring season.

“(The spring season) benefits the younger players the most,” Barber said. “It’s about getting comfortable with each other and allowing the coaches to develop players.”

The football team may not have games scheduled for the offseason, but coach Jeff Voris has 14 practices planned between March 23 and April 20.

The practices will culminate in the annual Blue-White Spring Game on April 21.

Sophomore running back Trae Heeter said that the squad focuses on re-implementing the team’s formations.

It also gives younger players time to impress the coaching staff.

“In the spring, we re-install either our offensive schemes or our defensive schemes,” Heeter said. “It’s basically a time for the guys that have been here to continue to work on their skills and for the freshmen and sophomores to go out there and show the coaches what they can do.”

The two-part scenario was simple for the Butler men’s soccer team entering last Wednesday: Win or tie the final two matches of the regular season or go home.

The second match resulted in a 1-0 loss for the Bulldogs (7-8-3, 2-4-2) to the league’s second place team, Wright State, on Saturday afternoon at the Butler Bowl, capping a disappointing conference season.

“We went out there and had to play positive,” coach Paul Snape said. “We had to make sure that we didn’t overcommit ourselves, and we went out and created a lot of good chances.”

Photo by Maria Porter

Butler had put itself in position to move on to the Horizon League Tournament with a win or tie against the Raiders (10-6-2, 5-2-1) after tying 1-1 with league-leading Valparaiso on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs had several scoring opportunities early on, including freshman forward Chad Rigg striking the crossbar with a shot in the opening minute of the match.

However, the first major  momentum shift came in Wright State’s favor when sophomore midfielder Will McAteer successfully converted a corner kick in the 24th minute for the match’s first and only goal.

“[Snape] articulated some good tactical aspects at halftime that put us in position to score,” junior defenseman Jared Isenthal said. “Our execution kind of failed us.”

The Raiders were able to keep the Bulldogs from scoring the rest of the match despite Butler finishing with a 17-8 advantage in shots and a 9-4 advantage in shots-on-goal.

In the final 15 minutes, Butler struck the crossbar twice but could not find the back of the net as time eventually expired in the match and on Butler’s season.

Sophomore forward Austin Oldham led the Bulldogs’ attack with four shots, and junior goalkeeper John Dawson contributed three saves in the loss.

The match was the last in the collegiate careers of Butler’s five seniors: defenseman JC Aikenhead, midfielder Lucas Eichhorn, midfielder Dustin Mares, midfielder Randy Richter and student manager Jack Morlock.

“It was a unique senior class,” Isenthal said. “Each one brought different aspects to the team that a team needs.

“Most of all [we are going to miss] their experience.  That kind of set the tone for what it means to play soccer at Butler.”

The five seniors were part of the winningest stretch in Butler history, compiling a 50-15-12 record while playing in a blue and white uniform.

Photo by Reid Bruner

They also played in two NCAA tournaments and won two Horizon League regular season titles during their careers.

Next season’s squad expects to return 10 of the 11 players who started against Wright State, including Isenthal, Oldham and Dawson.