PEORIA, Ill. -- In his first action of the season after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in May, Bradley senior forward Chris Brown converted a penalty kick in the 30th minute for the game-winner and senior goalkeeper Chris Dunsheath needed just three saves to earn his eighth shutout of the season as the Braves (10-4-1, 3-1-1) blanked Evansville (2-12-1, 0-5-0) for a 2-0 Missouri Valley Conference men's soccer victory Saturday night at Shea Stadium.
Bradley's active leader with 12 career goals, Brown tore the ACL in his first week of training with the Vermont Voltage of the Premier Development League and had surgery to repair the injury in June. Wearing a rigid knee brace, Brown entered Saturday's game on a corner kick in the 28th minute. On Bradley's next possession, Brown teamed with midfielder Drew DeGurian on a give-and-go play near the top of the box, where DeGurian was tripped up to create the penalty kick. Brown beat Evansville keeper Corey Southers with a crisp shot at 29:45 for his third career game-winning strike.
In his 39 minutes of action Saturday, Brown shared team-high honors with three shots and he got all three of those attempts on frame. It appeared Brown would come through with a second goal in the run of play in the 72nd minute when he burst through the right flank, but Southers came off his line to make one of his six saves.
Senior forward Kevin Erickson made a similar impact on the scoring when he subbed into the game in the second half. After re-entering the game in the 65th minute, Erickson joined with Nick Bowden one minute later to set up a Ryan Johnson's second goal of the season at 65:55. After Bowden played the ball to the top left of the box, Erickson drew Southers off his line before setting up Johnson for the easy finish with a nice centering pass.
Bradley finished with a 16-11 advantage in shots. While Bradley put nine of its 16 shots on target, Evansville managed only three shots on goal. Dunsheath stopped all three in routine fashion.
With 8.0 shutouts this season, Dunsheath upped his career total to 24.5 and needs two more to break his own Bradley single-season record (9.0 in 2002) and the Valley's career mark of 26.0 set by Missouri State's Mark Modersohn from 1997 to 2000. Dunsheath also moved into 14th place on the NCAA's career list for minutes played with 7,562.
The Braves will continue their season-long, four-game home stand Wednesday night when they host in-state rival Northern Illinois at 7 o'clock at Shea Stadium. As a midweek game, fans may purchase half-priced tickets for Wednesday's game verus the Huskies. Regular ticket prices are $5 for adults and $2 for youth (K-12) and seniors. Bradley University students, faculty and staff receive free admission to all regular-season home games.
