Bradley Soccer will face the No. 1-ranked team in the nation for the fifth time in program history when the Braves (2-2-0) visit Connecticut (2-0-1) Saturday night at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium.

Kick Off

• For the fifth time in program history, Bradley will face a national No. 1-ranked team when the Braves visit Connecticut (2-0-1) Saturday night at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium.
• Though the Huskies are coming off a scoreless draw at home Tuesday night against #10 Washington, UConn began the week as the top-ranked team in the Soccer America Men's Top 25 and #3 in the NSCAA/Continental Tire, SoccerTimes.com and CollegeSoccerNews.com weekly rankings.
• Bradley is 0-4-0 all-time against the nation's top-ranked team and will try to break its all-time scoreless streak versus No. 1 teams against a UConn squad that has yet to allow a goal in its first three games.
• The Braves will be trying to end a 2-game losing streak and are searching for their first win away from home this season.
• Bradley has not dropped three in a row since a 4-game skid from Sept. 17-26, 2010.
• Bradley and Connecticut are meeting for the first time on the soccer pitch.
• Saturday's game will be Bradley's first official game against an American Athletic Conference foe, though the Braves are 8-13-6 all-time against the nine teams that make up the first-year conference. 

Head Coach Jim DeRose

• Jim DeRose (Johnson State '89) is in his 18th year as a collegiate head coach, all at Bradley.
• DeRose enters Saturday's game at UConn with a 193-131-37 (.586) career record and his 193 wins represent 79.1 percent of the all-time victory total in Bradley Soccer history (244).
• DeRose was the 2007 Soccer America National Coach of the Year and he has twice been selected the NSCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year (1998, 2007).

Newcomer Contributions

• Bradley returned 18 lettermen from last year's squad, including eight of the 10 players who scored at least one goal and 11 of the 15 who contributed at least one point.
• Through the first four games of this season, however, five of the six Braves who have contributed at least one point are newcomers.
• First-year senior forward Alon Badat leads the team in scoring after netting all three of Bradley's goals in last weekend's UNLV Nike Invitational.
• Senior forward Wojciech Wojcik is the team's second-leading scorer with four points on one goal and two assists.
• With one goal, freshman Tyler Davis is Bradley's only other goal scorer in the early season, while freshmen Christian Okeke and Alex Garcia, along with first-year senior Aaron Birk, all have one assist.

Facing Tough D's

• As Bradley prepares for its fifth game of the year Saturday at UConn, the Huskies become the fourth opponent that has not allowed a goal entering its game against the Braves.
• To be fair, the note includes the season-opener against New Hampshire, but Massachusetts (1 game) and UC Riverside (3) both had played scoreless defense entering their games against Bradley this season.

One Long Road Trip

• Saturday's game at UConn comes in the middle of one seriously long, 5-game road trip.
• Bradley participated in the UNLV Nike Invitational last weekend in Las Vegas and will fly the friendly skies again next weekend for games Friday at Denver and Sept. 22 at Air Force.
• The round trip travel for the 5-game road swing is about 7,500 miles in a 17-day period.
• By comparison, UConn will play two non-conference road games this year - Tuesday at Syracuse and Oct. 22 at Yale - with total round-trip distance of 678 miles.

Billings Update

• Senior goalkeeper Brian Billings continues to climb Bradley's career goalkeeping records lists.
• Billings enters Saturday's game with 266 career saves and with three more against the Huskies, he will move into fifth place on the school's all-time saves list.
• Billings already ranks among Bradley's all-time top five goalkeepers in every other statistical area charted by the school.

Top Three with an Asterisk

• Bradley officially is 1-7-1 all-time against teams ranked among the nation's top three, but that one win comes with an asterisk.
• The Braves played #3 SMU to a scoreless draw through two overtimes in the semifinals of the 2002 MVC Tournament in suburban St. Louis, then advanced to the championship game in penalty kicks, 3-1.
• According to 2002 NCAA rules, Bradley officially was credited with a win for that shootout victory.
• Fifth-ranked SMU (Nov. 10, 2000) and Notre Dame (Sept. 19, 2002) are the highest-ranked teams to fall victim to Bradley in outright fashion.
• Seventh-ranked Creighton (Nov. 18, 2007) is the highest-ranked team Bradley has beaten on the road.

Flirting with .500

• Bradley's all-time record continues to flirt with .500.
• The Braves enter Saturday's game at UConn with a 244-245-48 (.499) all-time record.
• Bradley moved over the .500 mark for the first time in the program's 27-year history with its 1-0 win against Massachusetts Sept. 1, but have dropped back below the mark with its consecutive losses at last weekend's UNLV Nike Invitational.
• Bradley was 67 games under .500 (58-125-11, .327) during its first 10 seasons from 1987-96 and had only one winning season (1992, 11-7-1) during those start-up years.
• In the 16 years from 1997-2012, however, Bradley was 66 games over .500 (184-118-37, .597) with 12 winning seasons, two .500 seasons and just two seasons under .500.