Badat Leads Bradley by Loyola Chicago, 2-0

October 19, 2013

PEORIA, Ill. – Senior forward Alon Badat is finding his scoring touch and Bradley rode his offense to its first Missouri Valley Conference win of the season, a 2-0 Homecoming victory versus Loyola Chicago (3-9-1, 0-3-0 MVC) Saturday night at Shea Stadium.

Badat scored a pair of second-half goals, his fifth and sixth tallies of the season, as the Braves (7-4-2, 1-0-1) earned its second straight win for the first time since the opening weekend of the season. Bradley was coming off a similar, 2-0 win Tuesday night against Belmont and will close out its three-game home stand Wednesday night by hosting SIU Edwarsdsville in a pivotal Valley match.

After building a 10-6 shots advantage during a scoreless first half, Bradley withstood some early pressure from Loyola through the first 10 minutes of the second half, before regaining control. Consecutive cautions against Loyola’s Lee Grander (68th minute) and Daniel Hare (69th minute) for grabbing hold of Bradley players who were positioned for dangerous counter runs from midfield, seemed to turn the tide in the home team’s favor.

Following a free kick after the second yellow, Bradley was able to create a throw-in situation from right side deep in Loyola’s end. Andrew Brown’s toss into the penalty area was flicked to the far post by Wojciech Wojcik and Badat was on the other end for a strong finish at 68:57.

The next 11 minutes proved uneventful until Badat collected a clearance from Zach Kovacevic near midfield and made a magical run through several Loyola defenders, before punching a shot from just inside the top of the penalty area past Ramblers keeper Tim Dobrowolski at 80:39. Badat, who also scored Bradley’s second goal in Tuesday’s 2-0 win against Belmont, has scored three consecutive Bradley goals for the second time this season.

Wednesday’s game against the Cougars will be High School/Middle School Night and Bradley’s annual Pink Game at Shea Stadium. Braves head coach Jim DeRose will conduct a pregame “chalk talk” for all interested fans and everyone in attendance wearing pink in recognition of breast cancer awareness will have the opportunity to purchase tickets at the discounted group rate, while breast cancer survivors will receive free admission. High school and middle school teams interested in attending Wednesday’s game should submit a group ticket form to the Bradley Athletics Ticket Office.