Butler Visits State Foe Evansville

STATE MEET:  Butler will step out of Horizon League play for the final time this season when it heads to southern Indiana to face state opponent Evansville on Saturday, Oct. 22.  The match at Evansville’s Black Beauty Field is scheduled for 7 p.m. (CT, 8 p.m. in Indianapolis).  The Bulldogs (5-6-2) are coming off a pair of 1-0 setbacks and are trying to snap a four-match winless streak.  Butler fell by a single goal at home to No. 18 Indiana on Wednesday, Oct. 12, and then lost a second 1-0 decision in a league match at Green Bay on Saturday, Oct. 15.  The game-winning goal in both matches came in the second half.  Evansville also is looking to snap a four-match winless streak.  The Aces (5-6-1) played to a 0-0 draw at Central Arkansas in their last outing, after dropping three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference matches.  Butler and Evansville, former conference foes in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (1990-93), will be meeting for the 19th time.  The Aces lead the all-time series, 11-7.    

Butler’s last victory at Evansville came in 2000, 2-0.                        

LAST MEETING:  The Bulldogs slipped past Evansville, 2-1, in dramatic fashion at the Butler Bowl last year.  Midfielder Kyle Pateros scored with 1:31 remaining in the contest to lift the Bulldogs to the non-league victory.  The game-winning play started on a throw-in by Jamie Vollmer, who launched the ball from 25 yards out toward the Evansville goal.  The ball bounded off Butler’s Adam Glanzer, and Pateros was on the spot to slip a header past Evansville goalkeeper Robert Randant.  The two teams had battled to a 0-0 tie through the first half.  The score remained deadlocked until 54:44, when Butler’s Adekunle Oluyedun (right) finished a corner kick by Ben Sippola with a header to the lower right corner of the net.  Evansville came back 12 minutes later and again tied the match on Tom Irvin’s header off a corner kick by Gavin Chura.

Butler has just one win in its last four meetings with Evansville.              

LATE HITS:  No. 18 Indiana and Horizon League foe Green Bay used second half goals to hand Butler a pair of 1-0 setbacks last week.  The Hoosiers scored their game-winner with just over five minutes remaining in the match when Eriq Zavaleta fired a shot to the upper right corner of the net from about ten yards out on the left side.  The match marked Indiana’s first-ever visit to the Butler Bowl.  Three days later, Green Bay tallied the lone goal of the match at 66:53 when Tony Walls scored on a rebound of his own penalty kick.  The Bulldogs had eight shots on goal in the two matches, but came up empty.     

BULLDOG BITS:  Butler played both matches last week without assist leader, Zach Steinberger.  The freshman midfielder has missed the past two-and-a-half matches with injury, and he remains questionable for this week’s action.  Steinberger is tied for second on the team in scoring with two goals and four assists...Goalkeeper Jon Dawson had a career-high seven saves in Butler’s match at Green Bay.  Dawson also had four saves in the Bulldogs’ match with No. 18 Indiana...Sophomore Austin Oldham led the Bulldogs in shots in both matches last week.  He had four shots, including one on goal, against Indiana and three shots, including two on goal, at Green Bay.  Oldham ranks fourth in the Horizon League in shots (33)...Junior defender Justin Sass began his collegiate soccer career at Evansville.  He earned All-Midwest Region recognition with the Aces, before transferring to Butler...Zach Steinberger remains tied for third in the Horizon League in assists (4).  He ranks second in the league in assists per game (0.40)...Butler is tied for second in the Horizon League in assists (17) and in corner kicks (64).