Soccer Hosts Drake for Homecoming

Bradley Soccer will host a special pregame tailgate before welcoming Drake to Shea Stadium Saturday night

Bobby Parker, Associate AD for Communications Soccer 10/4/2019 8:00:00 AM

PEORIA, IL – Bradley Soccer will do its part to participate in National Tailgate Weekend as the Braves prepare to host their largest pregame tailgate of the season in advance of Saturday night's Homecoming match against Missouri Valley Conference rival Drake at Shea Stadium.

The Shea Stadium tailgate lot will open an hour early Saturday, 4 p.m., and the pregame festivities will include a live remote by KISS-FM, eight area food trucks set up around the tailgate perimeter and a large inflatable game by Fun on the Run. A limited number of tailgate spaces remain for $10 each, while general parking at Shea Stadium is $3.

GAME DAY DETAILS
Drake (5-4-0, 2-1-0 MVC) at Bradley (2-3-3, 1-1-1 MVC)
Date: Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: Peoria, IL | Shea Stadium
Tickets: $6 adults, $4 youth (K-8th grade)
TV: The Valley on ESPN | ESPN+
Live Stats: BradleyBraves.com

BRADLEY SOCCER TICKETS
Single-Game Adult: $6
Single-Game Children (K-8th grade): $4
Kaboom!'s Club: FREE (with $10 annual membership) | Click HERE for information
Bradley students, faculty and staff (with valid ID): FREE
Active Military and Immediate Family (with valid ID): FREE
For Complete Information: Click Here

BRADLEY SOCCER TICKET BANK
• Supporters of the Bradley Soccer program, led by the Friends of Bradley Soccer, have made more than 5,000 complimentary tickets available for not-for-profit organizations, youth teams, schools and individuals who otherwise may not be able to attend Bradley Soccer home games.
• If you or your organization would like to request tickets from the Bradley Soccer Ticket Bank to utilize during the 2019 season, CLICK HERE and complete the request form and you will be contacted by a representative of the Bradley Soccer program.
• Please submit requests at least 48 hours prior to the selected game.

OPENING KICKS
• Following a bizarre schedule quirk that wound up producing Bradley's longest stretch of consecutive true road games (4) since 2011, the Braves return home Saturday night to host Missouri Valley Conference rival Drake in Bradley University's annual Homecoming game.
• Saturday's game against the Bulldogs will be Bradley's first "return" game in the 2019 Valley double round-robin schedule format: Drake earned a 2-0 victory against the Braves in the league opener Sept. 21 in Des Moines.
• Following Saturday's brief return to Shea Stadium, Bradley will hit the road for its next three games, meaning the Braves are in the middle of an 8-game stretch that has them playing seven true road games, the first time since 1990 Bradley has played a stretch of 7-of-8 games away from home in the same season.
• With its largest crowd of the season expected for Saturday night's Homecoming Game, Bradley began the week ranked 31st nationally and first in The Valley by averaging 1,049 fans per game, currently on pace for the fifth-best per-game average in program history and the best since 2007.

DOUBLE ROUND ROBIN
• Saturday's matchup against Drake is Bradley's first "return" game of the season as part of the Missouri Valley Conference's new double, round-robin league schedule format.
• Each of the league's six men's soccer members will play a home-and-home series against one another, creating a 10-game regular-season conference table.
• The 2009 season is the only other year in Valley men's soccer history to feature a full, double round-robin schedule format.
• Drake claimed a 2-0 victory in this season's first meeting, Sept. 21 at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines.

NO REST
• Bradley originally was scheduled to enter Saturday's game rested without a midweek game.
• Plans changed when Sunday's game against Valparaiso was cancelled in the 66th minute due to persistent lightning in the Peoria area.
• The game was replayed from its beginning Tuesday night at Valparaiso, where the Braves claimed a 2-1 victory in double overtime.
• Following Saturday's home game against Drake, Bradley will hit the road for three games in a 7-day stretch: Oct. 9 at Missouri State, Oct. 13 at Evansville and Oct. 15 at Omaha.
• The Braves will cover 2,098 miles, round trip, during the upcoming 3-game road swing.

DEFENSE REMAINS STOUT
• Through the season's first eight games, Bradley leads The Valley by allowing the opposition only a .283 shots-on-goal percentage - of the 99 shots allowed, only 28 have been on target.
• Bradley has never finished a season with an opponent shots-on-goal-percentage below .340 (2005).
• The Braves rank second in The Valley with a 0.90 goals against average.

SERIES HISTORY
• The most-played series in Bradley Soccer's 33-year history will resume Saturday night when Missouri Valley Conference rival Drake visits Shea Stadium.
• Saturday night's matchup will be the 46th in the all-time series, which dates to Bradley's first season as a NCAA Division I program.
• The series has been dominated by streaky dominance: Drake was 8-1-2 in the first 11 meetings from 1987-97; Bradley 11-2-2 in the next 15 matchups from 1998-2007; and now Drake 12-6-1 in the most-recent 19 meetings since 2008.
• The Braves are 11-4-1 against the Bulldogs all-time at Shea Stadium, including wins in both of Drake's 2017 visits for the regular season and MVC Tournament.
• In his 24th year as Bradley head coach, Jim DeRose is 17-16-3 all-time against the Bulldogs, including a 13-6-1 home record versus Drake.
• In his fifth year as Drake head coach, Gareth Smith is 5-3-1 against the Braves, including a 1-2-0 road record against Bradley.

ATTENDANCE TRACKER
• Through the first four home games of the season, Bradley's average attendance is 1,049.
• According to statistics posted by the NCAA through games of Sept. 26, Bradley ranks 29th nationally in average home attendance, 16th among teams outside the Power 5 conferences and first in The Valley.
• Bradley's four home attendance numbers to start the season - 1233, 1072, 932 and 958 - represent the four largest home attendance figures in the Missouri Valley Conference to date this season.
• Through the season's first four games, Bradley has drawn 4,195 fans to Shea Stadium, just 707 fewer than the total 4,902 fans for the 2018, 10-game home slate.

HOMECOMING HISTORY
• After Bradley re-constructed the old Pete Vonachen Stadium at Meinen Field baseball venue into a soccer-specific stadium and opened Shea Stadium as its new soccer home venue in 2003, Bradley University returned its annual Homecoming to the traditional fall season, targeting a soccer game as a featured event to the festivities.
• Saturday's game against Drake will be Bradley's 17th Homecoming Game (weekend tournaments with 2 games in 2007 and 2008 and a stormed out game in 2004).
• Bradley is 11-5-0 all-time in its featured Homecoming games, though Drake is responsible for one of those five losses in its only previous participation in the game.
• Including the 2004 game against #3 SMU that ultimately was cancelled due to heavy storms, Bradley has totalled 25,671 fans for its previous 17 Homecoming events for an average Homecoming attendance of 1,510.

LOCATION, LOCATION
• Saturday's game is Bradley's lone home game during an 8-game stretch that has the Braves playing seven true road games.
• Bradley has played as many as 7-of-8 games on its opponents' home fields just one other time in the program's 33-year history - an 8-game road swing Sept. 10-Oct. 1, 1989 to start an overall 10-game that stretch that concluded with consecutive neutral-site games.
• The switch of Sunday's cancelled home game versus Valparaiso to a Tuesday road game against the Crusaders also added a level of oddity to Bradley's Missouri Valley Conference slate.
• The Braves have opened Valley play with three consecutive conference games and will start league play with five of their first six games on the road by visiting Missouri State and Evansville following Saturday's game versus Drake.
• The heaviest stretch of Valley road games in program history came in 2004 when the Braves played 5-of-7 games to start the league race on the road, capped by four straight.
• On the flip side, however, the transition of the Oct. 27 game versus Valparaiso to Shea Stadium means Bradley will close the league race by playing its final four Valley games at home.

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