The Tulsa men’s soccer team concluded the season with a 3-0 loss to #23 Creighton in the NCAA Championship First Round on Thursday night at the Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.  TU ended the year with a 10-5-5 record on the season, while CU moved to 12-6-3 overall.

 

“I’m really proud of the guys,” Head Coach Tom McIntosh said.  “They came together exceptionally well throughout the course of the year, dealt with adversity well and put another trophy in the trophy cabinet.  I am proud of our guys and proud of the way they played.  I am thankful for this group.  They never gave into adversity and I couldn’t have been more fortunate to coach them or be more proud of them.”

 

Mitch LaGro gave the Bluejays an early lead as he headed in a corner kick taken by Joel Rydstrand with just 2:50 ticked off the clock.  Myles Englis put CU up 2-0 as he shot into the back right corner off a combination from Luke Haakenson and Ricky Lopez-Espin at the 5:42 mark, and then Lopez-Espin recorded a goal in the 68^th minute for the final score.

 

“We certainly didn’t want to go down 2-0 in the first six minutes because we put ourselves in a hole,” McIntosh said.  “We didn’t mark well on the corner and they punished us for it on the first goal.  The second goal we could have defended better, but after that we created a couple of good chances that if we could have got one back before half would have been better.  In the second half we started well and had control of the game, but we didn’t create enough good chances and then they caught us on a counter for their third goal.  Give credit to Creighton.  They played well and moved the ball well.”

 

The Bluejays had a 14-8 lead in shots, including a 6-3 advantage in shots on goal, while the Hurricane had a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.

 

Matthew Puig and Juan Sanchez had two shots apiece for Tulsa, while four others had one attempt.  Jake McGuire logged all 90 minutes in goal and picked up three saves.

 

Scoring Summary

Tulsa               0          0          -           0

Creighton        2          1          -           1

 

Individual Scoring

Mitch LaGro (Creighton) at 2:50 (Joel Rydstrand)

Myles Englis (Creighton) at 5:42 (Ricky Lopez-Espin / Luke Haakenson)

Ricky Lopez-Espin (Creighton) at 67:57 (Luke Haakenson)

 

Goalkeeper Saves

Jake McGuire (Tulsa) – 3

Alex Kapp (Creighton) – 2

Michael Kluver (Creighton) – 1