The Bradley men’s soccer team failed once again to grab a win this week. The Braves haven’t won a game since Sept. 20 and haven’t scored a goal since Oct. 1.
On Saturday night, the Braves hosted Missouri Valley Conference-foe Central Arkansas, who took the lead 1-0 in the 40th minute and held on the rest of the way for the win.
Bradley had a great scoring opportunity within the first ten minutes when junior forward Richard Olsen’s header missed high off the crossbar, but was unable to find the net. Central Arkansas was able to control the game with a lead the rest of the way and keep Bradley off the board.
Tuesday night the Braves hosted non-conference opponent Nebraska-Omaha at Shea Stadium. Omaha’s veteran team took advantage of every opportunity and Bradley looked outmatched from the start.
Omaha’s Emmanuel Hamzat got around his defender to beat senior goalkeeper Logan Ketterrer near post for the game’s first goal. The shot hit Ketterrer in the hands, dislocating his finger, and bounced into the net. Ketterrer was subbed out after the play but returned to start the second half.
“They got a goal, unfortunately when Logan dislocated his finger, kind of just a weird goal,” head coach Jim DeRose said. “Then they did what a good team does, they take a 1-0 lead, and then they came out ten minutes into the second and just kept going from there. In and around the goal they were very lethal, they either hit the target with it or made our goalies make saves.”
Bradley held Omaha to the single goal in the first half, but the Mavericks kept coming at the Braves with pinpoint passing to dissect the defense.
“Omaha is a great team,” Olsen said. “I think they connected their passes really well and hit a bunch of one-twos that really created a hole in our back line.”
After the half, the Mavericks came out with their hair on fire as they continued to penetrate the Braves defense and tacked on three more goals in the second half, winning 4-0 in dominant fashion.
“They’re a veteran team, just better than us everywhere,” DeRose said. “Literally 11 positions on the field they were better than us tonight. Start to finish they outclassed us.”
Bradley’s current seven-game winless streak is the longest such streak since 2009, when the they lost eight games in a row.
After the game, DeRose spoke on Bradley’s recent scoring drought.
“Their keeper made some great saves, but truth be told, we didn’t really have many other chances, because when we did get into dangerous positions we just didn’t do enough,” DeRose said. “Maybe at the end of the day you find a goal here or two, but you’ve got to find that goal at 0-0 or 1-0 because after that they were pretty in control. We had 16 shots, but it’s quality not quantity.”
Bradley’s search for its first MVC win continues Saturday night as the Braves visit SIU Edwardsville at 7 p.m. The Braves played SIUE to a draw at Shea earlier this season.
“There’s no one in the Valley that we’re afraid to play, I think we match up really well with SIUE and I think we just need to stick our chances,” Olsen said. “I think that once we score one, we’re not going to stop scoring.”
