Nov. 10, 2000
Bowling Green, Ky. - The Western Kentucky men's soccer team played its best match of the season in an attempt to advance to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Finals for the first time in school history, but they ran into No. 11 Creighton who are 17-3 on the season. The Hilltoppers fought hard in the second half, but came up short when Blue Jay sophomore Mike Tranchilla nailed the winning goal in the match's 78th minute to take a 3-2 victory.
The loss ends the Hilltopper's season at 10-11, but WKU finishes at 8-5 inside the conference. The Hilltoppers advanced to the MVC Tournament semifinals for the first time in the program's history while finishing third in the conference during the regular season.
Creighton got on the board first when Brian Mullan scored on a header from 10 yards out in the match's 21st minute. The Blue Jays took the 1-0 lead into the locker room at halftime after dominating most of the first half.
The Hilltoppers came out with a fire in the second half and junior Conrad Davies' nailed a goal in the match's 47th minute to even the match at 1-1. The goal was Davies' first of the season.
After Creighton came right back five minutes later, senior Steve Brown took control and nailed a header past the Blue Jay's goalkeeper to even the score at 2-2.
The match was tough the rest of the way when a pass from WKU's Brandon Thompson that was intended for Tawanda Chitapa glanced off the official and right into the waiting Tranchilla who took the ball all the way down the field for the match winning goal.
"We played a very tough team, and we gave them all they wanted," head coach David Holmes said. "They will go a long way in the NCAA Tournament and we played them tough. I feel bad for our seniors, they really wanted to beat these guys."
The match was the last for three WKU seniors. Brown finishes his career with 34 goals, good enough for fourth all-time in school history. Donovan Schultz finished the season with four goals and four assists. Derek O'Brien a junior college transfer played huge for the Toppers in his two-year stay at Western and finished his two-year career with 12 assists, which is 10th on the all-time list. Scott Gardner, who was lost for the season in the Southwest Missouri State match to a broken arm, finished with 75 matches started and played, five short of the WKU school record. If not for the injury, Gardner would have broken the record in Friday night's match against Creighton in the semifinals of the MVC Tournament.
The Hilltoppers now will look to 2001 when they will enter their fifth season in the MVC, and will look to once again make some noise in the nation's toughest soccer conference.
