[8/9] Denver Earns Draw at [12/8] Creighton

September 21, 2016

OMAHA – The [8/9] University of Denver men’s soccer team had the majority of the chances and possession after the intermission and earned a road result at [12/8] Creighton, as the two teams finished 0-0 on Wednesday night at Morrison Stadium.

“I think Creighton came out in the first 15 or 20 minutes and pushed the game very well against us,” head coach Jamie Franks said. “I thought that we weathered that storm well and to come to the 12^th-ranked team in the country and push the game ourselves after that is a testament to our guys. We tested their keeper a lot, had two balls hit off the bar and just played some really good football against a great team on the road.

“We had our chances tonight,” Franks said. “We were a little bit unfortunate to not get on the board, but that’s football. This is definitely a positive result for this group, and now we move on to league play on Saturday.”

Denver outshot Creighton 7-6 in the first half, a 45 minute period that Creighton controlled in the early stages, but the Pioneers gradually got a foothold into the match balancing out the run of play heading into the locker room.

Both teams had shots hit the woodwork in the first half, with a Kortne Ford (Greeley, Colo.) volley rattling the post and a Graham Smith (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) shot off a corner skimming off the top of the crossbar. Creighton had one deflect off redshirt-sophomore Nick Gardner’s (Marvin, N.C.) hand and then off the post in the middle of the first half.

DU controlled the play in the second half, dominating the possession and the chances prior to the two teams going into extra time. Denver had nine shots to Creighton’s four in the stanza, forcing six saves from CU’s Alex Kapp. Gardner, who was called upon to make four saves in the first half, was not forced into action in the second.

Junior Blake Elder (Fort Worth, Texas), who was the Pioneers’ most in-form striker heading into Wednesday night, has the best opportunity in the first period of extra time, but a pass from Sam Hamilton’s (Evergreen, Colo.) bounced on the turf and rolled up the junior’s foot, and over the bar.

Denver forced Creighton’s Kapp to make nine saves in the match, and both teams took 10 corner kicks in the 110 minutes.

With the result, Denver stretched its unbeaten run in regular season matches, which dates back to Halloween, 2014, to 26 matches.

The cleansheet is Denver’s 39^th since the start of the 2012 season (35-0-4).