Bulldogs Open 2009 Men's Soccer Season At IPFW
SEASON OPENER: Butler will begin the 2009
men’s soccer season on the road with a short trip to Fort
Wayne. The Bulldogs, coming off their most successful season
in nearly a decade, will face IPFW in a non-league match on
Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Hefner Soccer Complex. The
season-opener is slated for 7 p.m. (ET). Butler head coach
Kelly Findley has eight starters back from last year’s 13-3-4
squad, which finished second in the Horizon League and posted a
“Top 25” national ranking. The Bulldogs’ 13
wins were the most by a Butler team since 2004 and tied the
fourth-highest win total in school history. Butler broke into
the national soccer polls at midseason last year and reached as
high as No. 21 in late October. Following the IPFW opener,
the Bulldogs will return to Indianapolis to host their first home
match against Xavier on Sunday, Sept. 6. That match will be
played in the Butler Bowl, starting at 5 p.m.
(ET).
Butler is 2-0-1 in season-openers under head coach
Kelly Findley.
SPLIT DECISION: Butler came away with one
win and one loss in two preseason exhibition matches in
August. The Bulldogs defeated 2008 NCAA Tournament
participant Dayton, 2-0, in a weather-shortened match at home on
August 19, but then dropped a 1-0 decision at Eastern Illinois on
August 25. Freshman Tyler Pollock provided
the game-winner against Dayton with a header just 23 minutes into
the match. Julian Cardona, another freshman,
added an insurance goal late in the second half. The match
was called with just over six minutes remaining because of
lightening. One week later, the Bulldogs played Eastern
Illinois to a scoreless deadlock for nearly 60 minutes, before the
host Panthers tallied the lone goal of the
contest.
FIRST DEFENSE: Much of Butler’s
success in 2008 can be traced to a rock-solid defensive effort that
produced a school-record ten shutouts. The Bulldogs allowed
just 16 goals in 20 matches, also a school record, and head coach
Kelly Findley returns his entire back line this
season. Leading that group are a pair of All-Horizon League
performers, senior goalkeeper Nick Hegeman and
sophomore defender Matt Hedges. Hegeman
recorded seven shutouts and a 0.77 goals against average in 2008,
and he was named second team All-League. Hedges started all
20 Butler matches in his initial season with the Bulldogs, and he
was named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer team. Those two
are joined on the back line by senior Kyle
VondenBenken and juniors Conner Burt and
Brett Heinz. All three started all 20
matches a year ago.
Butler set a school-record for goals against average
(0.76) in 2008.
ASSIST CHART: Senior Boris
Gatzky enters his final season with the Bulldogs needing
just two assists to move into a tie for tenth place on
Butler’s all-time assist chart. Gatzky, who transferred
to Butler from Gardner-Webb two years ago, finished second on the
team with six assists last year, and he has 13 assists for his
Butler career. Valentino Scicluna, 1994-97, currently stand
tenth on Butler’s all-time list with 15 assists.
BULLDOG BITS: Two members of the Butler
men’s soccer team, juniors Matt Sall and
Jacob Capito, spent the first week of August in
Jamaica on a medical trip with the Butler Intercollegiate
YMCA. The two worked alongside doctors and nurses at the main
hospital in Mandeville, and also at an orphanage that houses 85
children. Both players are pre-med majors...Goalkeeper
Nick Hegeman stands sixth on Butler’s
all-time list for shutouts with eight. He’s currently
tied for second on the Bulldogs’ all-time list for goals
against average (1.06)...Butler tied for ninth in the NCAA Division
I in winning percentage (.750) in 2008.
