Bulldogs Honor Seniors At Final Home Match
HOME FINALE: Butler will close out its
regular season and try to clinch a berth in the 2011 Horizon League
Men’s Soccer Championship when it hosts Wright State on
Saturday, Nov. 5. The consequential league match, which will
also be Butler’s “Senior Day,” will start at 5
p.m. (ET) at the Butler Bowl. The Bulldogs, coming off a 1-1
tie with league-leading Valparaiso, are battling with Loyola,
Milwaukee and UIC for the final two spots in the league
championship. Butler (7-7-3, 2-3-2 Horizon League) can clinch
one of those spots with a win or a tie against Wright State.
A loss would eliminate the Bulldogs from this year’s
tournament. Wright State (9-6-2, 4-2-1 HL) currently is tied
for second in the league standings with Cleveland State.
Prior to the match, Butler will pay tribute to the four seniors on
this year’s squad, JC Aikenhead, Lucas Eichhorn, Dustin Mares
and Randy Richter. The Horizon League Men’s Soccer
Championship will begin on campus sites on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
The semifinals and finals are scheduled for Nov.
11-13.
Butler has played in every Horizon League Championship since
1990.
SENIOR SALUTE: Seniors JC Aikenhead (West
Chicago, Ill.), Lucas Eichhorn (Dublin, Ohio), Dustin Mares
(Mishawaka) and Randy Richter (Elmhurst, Ill.) are facing their
final match in the Butler Bowl. Eichhorn and Mares each have
played four seasons with the Bulldogs, while Aikenhead and Richter
each have played two seasons. Over the past four seasons, the
Bulldogs have compiled a 50-14-12 record, including the
school’s first unbeaten regular season mark (16-0-3) in 2010,
two Horizon League regular season titles, one Horizon League
Tournament championship and two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Butler has earned a national “Top 25” ranking in each
of the past four seasons!
LEAGUE DRAW: Butler battled league-leading
Valparaiso for 110 minutes, before settling for a 1-1 tie on
Wednesday (Nov. 2). The host Crusaders grabbed a 1-0 lead
just over 18 minutes into the match and held that margin for the
next 56 minutes. Butler finally tied the match at 74:22 on a
goal by freshman Zach Steinberger. That wound up being the
final tally, as both teams battled through two scoreless overtime
periods. The Bulldogs finished with a 6-5 advantage in shots
on goal, including a 2-0 edge in overtime. The tie clinched
the regular season title for the Crusaders, who will host the
league championship semifinals and finals, Nov.
11-13.
SCORING CLIMB: Freshman Zach Steinberger,
who missed four matches with injury, has scored a pair of goals and
added an assist in the three matches since his return. He
recorded his team-high fifth assist against Cleveland State and
then scored single goals against Detroit and Valparaiso. The
production helped the first-year midfielder climb to ninth in the
Horizon League in points (13).
Zach Steinberger leads the Horizon League in assists per game
(0.38).
BULLDOG BITS: Sophomore Austin Oldham is
tied for third in the Horizon League in points (18), and he’s
tied for fourth in the circuit in goals (7). The second-year
forward stands third in the league in shots (41)...Butler
sophomores Austin Oldham and Adam Glanzer are among 13 players tied
for fifth in the Horizon League in game-winning goals with two
apiece...Adam Glanzer had Butler’s first goal in a 2-1
victory at Wright State a year ago...Goalkeeper Jon Dawson had four
saves at Valparaiso, boosting his season total to 49. Dawson
has had 28 saves in Butler’s last five matches, including a
career-high seven saves in a match at Green Bay...Junior Jared
Isenthal picked up his first assist of the season and the seventh
of his career in Butler’s 1-1 tie at Valparaiso.
