ERIC ROBINSON | CO-SPORTS EDITOR
The Butler men’s soccer team fell to unbeaten #1 Creighton University on Wednesday night at the Butler Bowl 1-0. The loss gives the Bulldogs a record of 6-3-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big East. Creighton stays undefeated with the win at 13-0-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
Senior Caleb Postlewait said that the team can use this game as a motivator for rest of the season.
“With the loss we know we’re right there,” Postlewait said, “but we use this as motivation and we take the positives and the negatives and we put that towards our game and improving ourselves.”
The top ranked team in the country showed why they have that distinction in the first half as the Bluejays put up 10 shots on the Bulldogs in the first 45 minutes alone with four of those being on goal. However, redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Eric Dick stopped all four of those shots. The Bulldogs only put up one shot in the first period, and despite the shot differential, the game went into halftime with a 0-0 tie.
The only goal of the game came in the second half. In the 69th minute, Creighton’s Timo Pitter took a pass from Fabian Herbers and shot it past Eric Dick into the left side of the net. It would turn out to be the only shot on goal that Creighton could muster up in the second half, but it proved to be the decisive goal. The Bulldogs made a push late in the game to knot up the game at one, and even though they outshot Creighton 6-3 in the second half, they could not get a shot into the net as the game ended in a 1-0 loss for the Bulldogs.
Dick said that this proved how good Bulldogs are to be able to fight with the top ranked team in the nation.
“The effort was there,” Dick said. “We created our chances. We were just all clicked in and it’s right there. We can taste it and that just proves to us that we’re so close.”
The Bulldogs were also held without a single corner kick for the entire game, while Creighton had eight.
One positive that came from this game was that junior David Goldsmith and senior Vincent Mitchell were back in action after missing time due to injuries. Mitchell had the only shot on goal for the Bulldogs.
Mitchell said that he was glad to be able to play again after missing time.
“It was good to be back and start playing,” Mitchell said. “I hope that this is also a positive for the guys that everyone is back now and in full effect.”
The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday to host St. John’s.
