PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley fourth-year junior goalkeeper Mike Haynes (Dunlap, Ill./Dunlap H.S.) spent the last three seasons waiting patiently for his chance to play while All-American Chris Dunsheath re-wrote the school record books. In Friday's second semifinal game of the 2006 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Championship at Shea Stadium, Haynes did his best Dunsheath impersonation, recording five saves during the run of play and stopping a Blake Siberz shootout penalty kick to lead the Braves into Sunday's championship game.
Bradley (8-7-4) and Drake (6-7-6) played to a scoreless draw Friday, but the Braves advanced to the championship game of the State Farm MVC Tournament for the sixth time in eight years by winning the postgame shootout, 5-3. In Friday's first semifinal game, #18 Creighton (12-4-3) got a goal and an assist from Valley Player of the Year Michael Kraus in a 2-0 victory versus sixth-seeded Eastern Illinois (11-7-2).
After splitting the Valley regular-season (Bradley) and tournament (Creighton) championships last season, the Braves and Bluejays shared the 2006 MVC regular-season crown with identical 4-1-1 league records. Bradley earned the No. 1 seed for the tournament by grabbing a 2-1 victory versus the Bluejays in the regular-season finale Oct. 28 at Shea Stadium. A rematch of the 2005 MVC final at Shea Stadium, Sunday's meeting will be the fourth championship game matchup between the two programs and each of the three previous finals falling in Creighton's favor.
It is often said that the final score was not indicative of the game, but that certainly was not the case in Friday's second semifinal. The host Braves finished with a narrow 15-14 advantage in shots, while Drake managed one more shot on goal (6-5). Drake keeper Phillip Breuer matched Haynes save-for-save Friday, including impressive overtime stops by both netminders. Haynes first turned away Drake freshman Kevin Shrout on a point-blank shot in the first overtime and Breuer deflected a Chris Cutshaw blast wide of the net in the second overtime period.
Bradley shot first in overtime and redshirt freshman Brian Lock (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap H.S.) converted the shootout's first attempt. Darke's Luke Frieberg followed to even the score 1-1. Bradley's Stephen Brust, who converted one of Bradley's two regular-season penalty kicks, buried his attempt to give the Braves a 2-1 lead, only to see Shrout answer for a 2-2 tie. In the third round, junior Joe Donoho snuck his attempt past Breuer, who did make contact with the shot but couldn't keep it out of the net. The Braves gained their advantage when Haynes was able to make a sliding stop to his left against Siberz. Bradley took advantage of the opening by finishing off their last two attempts, in the fourth round by Valley Freshman of the Year Cutshaw and the fifth-round clincher by senior defender James Hedges (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame H.S.).
