BRAVES CLOSE REGULAR SEASON ON THE ROAD
? The Bradley soccer team will play its final game of the 2008 regular season on Saturday, visiting Central Arkansas for a 2 p.m. non-conference match at Farris Field in Conway, Ark.
? The Braves enter the regular season finale with a 6-10-1 overall record.
? In regular season finales, the Braves are 11-7-3 all-time, including a 4-2-2 mark when the final game of the regular season is played on the road.
? The last time Bradley finished the regular season with a non-conference opponent away from its home turf, #8 Saint Louis used a 65th minute goal to defeat the Braves, 1-0, in front of 2,590 fans on Nov. 2, 2003.
? Playing as a Division I Independent, Central Arkansas is 2-13-1 this season, earning victories over Belmont and Rider.
? Bradley enters Saturday's contest with a five-game losing streak, while the Bears are in the midst of an 11-game winless streak (0-10-1) dating back to a Sept. 12 win over Belmont.
The Series
? Saturday's match will be the third all-time between the Braves and Bears.
? Bradley owns a 2-0-0 advantage in the all-time series, winning both matches at Shea Stadium.
? Last season, Brian Lock recorded his first career goal on an assist from Rudy Garcia in the 62nd minute to give the Braves a 1-0 victory over the Bears on Oct. 29, 2007.
? In the first-ever meeting between the two schools on Sept. 15, 2006, the Braves scored a pair of goals in each half to start a 4-1 rout at Shea Stadium.
BRAVES CLOSE VALLEY PLAY
? Playing in its final Missouri Valley Conference match of the regular season, the Bradley soccer team dropped a 2-1 overtime decision at Evansville last Sunday.
? Freshman Tommy Fritze scored his first career goal in the ninth minute of the game on an assist from sophomore Rudy Garcia.
? The Purple aces tied the game at 1-1 in the 20th minute on an unassisted goal from Richard Menjivar.
? The score remained tied through the remainder of regulation and into the first overtime until the Aces won the game on an overtime goal from Tom Irvin.
? The defeat dropped Bradley's MVC record to 1-4-0.
HAPPY TO SEE THE BEARS
? Entering Saturday's match against Central Arkansas, Bradley junior forward Brian Lock has appeared in 49 games during his four-year Bradley career that included a redshirt season in 2005.
? Lock has five career points (1 G, 3 A) from his defending position in his Bradley career.
? Of the five points, three have come against Central Arkansas.
? As a redshirt freshman in 2006, Lock assisted on the game-winning goal in Bradley's 4-1 over Central Arkansas at Shea Stadium.
? Last season, Lock scored his only goal of the season just moments after entering the game in the 62nd minute in Bradley's 1-0 victory over the Bears at Shea Stadium, unofficially scoring the quickest goal ever by a Brave after entering a game.
SCOUTING THE BEARS
? Central Arkansas enters Saturday's match against Bradley with a 2-13-1 overall record in 2008.
? Former Bradley assistant coach Chad Flanders is the head coach of the Bears.
? Flanders assisted current head coach Jim DeRose for four seasons (1996-99), the second-longest tenure of any of DeRose's assistants since arriving at Bradley in 1996.
? Now in his sixth season as coach, Flanders is 50-46-10 (.519) overall at the Conway, Ark.-based school.
? Returning just three starters from last season's team that won six games, the Bears have been outscored 47-13 this season and have been shutout five times.
? Freshman midfielder Jordan Prescott (2 G, 1 A) and sophomore midfielder Adam Schwabauer (2 G, 1 A) share the team lead in scoring through 16 games.
? Goalkeepers Greg Brooks (1097:56) and Ernesto Pena (405:00) have shared time in goal this season for the Bears, combining for a goals against average of 2.81.
? Brooks earned both Central Arkansas victories earlier this season.
HEAD COACH JIM DeROSE
? Jim DeRose (Johnson State ?89) is in his 13th season as a head coach, all at Bradley, and was the 2007 Soccer America National Coach of the Year.
? DeRose and his staff have been named the Missouri Valley Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in each of the last two seasons.
? After serving as an assistant coach at former MVC member Illinois State from 1992 through 1994 and one year as an assistant at Richmond, the then 27-year-old DeRose took over a struggling Bradley program in 1996 and has turned the Braves into a consistent winner.
? DeRose enters the season's final match with a 149-95-26 (.600) career record, needing one more victory to become the third coach in Missouri Valley Conference history to win 150 games.
? His 149 wins represent 74.5 percent of Bradley's 200 victories in the 21-year history of the program.
