Creighton Rolls Over Northern Illinois in Men’s NCAA D1 Tournament

In a single NCAA Men’s D1 soccer tournament match, two Minnesotans were eliminated and two others advanced in this year’s contest. Eric Miller and Brent Kallman, both Woodbury, Minn. natives and both members of the Creighton Bluejays, will advance to next weekend’s Sweet 16 round of play after blanking Northern Illinois 2-0 on Sunday. On the losing end was sophomore midfielder Karim Darbaki and freshman forward Isaac Kannah who had both been important components of the Huskies team that boasted a record of 15-6-0 and made it through the first round of the tournament.

The Huskies first opponent in the tournament was Western Illinois, a game NIU hosted last Thursday. Northern Illinois defeated the Bulldogs 3-0 with the game winner coming in the 20th minute as Sean Totsch scored with an assist from Darbaki. Kannah gave the Huskies an insurance goal in the 43rd minute of play. Northern Illinois added a third in the 73rd minute.

With Western Illinois’ loss came the end of the season for two Minnesota freshman who were rostered for the Bulldogs: Ebenezer Mengistu (FR, Cottage Grove / Park) who played regularly and Adam Osman (FR, Mankato, Minn. / Mankato East) who most likely will be redshirted after never seeing a minute of playing time this season.

The Huskies’ win advanced them to Sunday’s second round game in Omaha, Neb. to face the stingy defense of the Bluejays. The game between #2 seeded Creighton (19-2-0) and Northern Illinois was the first of the tournament for the Bluejays, who had a first round bye. Creighton, who had allowed only 7 goals the entire season, continued their defensive dominance by allowing NIU only one shot on goal the entire game and that came from Kannah with a header on frame just before the half. In the end, Creighton outshot NIU 13-4 and defeated the Huskies 3-0 with the game winner coming in the 21st minute. Jose Gomez scored his 4th of the season with an assist going to Miller and Bruno Castro.

“To be fair, Creighton was the best team we have played in a long time, that is including Akron,” Northern Illinois head coach Eric Luzzi said. “Akron is in our conference and we play them once, sometimes twice a year. That team we just played, on both sides of the ball, is about as good a team as I have seen in the last couple of years.”

The Bluejays will now play host to UC Santa Barbara (15-6-1) next Sunday, November 27th with a 1:00 pm CT kickoff.

Other Minnesotans in the NCAA Tournament:

Sophomore goalkeeper Brian Billings (SO, Apple Valley, Minn. / Shattuck-St.Mary’s) started both of Bradley University’s (15-5-2) games in the NCAA Tournament. With a 2-1 win over Loyola Chicago on Thursday and a 3-2 loss to Louisville on Sunday, Billings finished his second year between the posts for Bradley playing 20 games with a .085 GAA.

Elon (9-10-2) junior Archie Karpeh (Roseville, Minn. / Pendleton School) was eliminated from the tournament with a first round 4-3 loss to Coastal Carolina.

Michael Gandier (SO, Hastings, Minn. / Shattuck-St. Mary’s) and his Furman team were knocked out in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament. Gandier went the full 90 for Furman in their 3-1 loss to the Charlotte 49ers.

Loyola University Chicago’s (7-12-2) Peter McKeown (SR, Woodbury, Minn. / Hill-Murray) was also eliminated in the first round of the tournament. Bradley University handed Loyola a 2-1 loss in Peoria, Illinois. McKeown went the full 90 in goal for his team in the loss. The Woodbury goalkeeper was forced into making 9 saves in this game as he saw 20 shots from Bradley.

McKeown was named to College Soccer News’ National Team of the Week for the week ending Nov. 13th. The 6’6” keeper was also named Horizon League Tournament MVP after his team took the tournament trophy.