Bradley Braves (6-6-4, 4-3-2 MVC)
vs. Evansville Purple Aces (2-13-1, 0-9-0 MVC)
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019 • 2:00 p.m. • Peoria, IL • Shea Stadium • ESPN+
REGULAR-SEASON FINALE
• Bradley will host Missouri Valley Conference rival Evansville in the 2019 regular-season finale Saturday afternoon at Shea Stadium.
• Saturday's game will be the final home game in the careers of 11 Bradley seniors, who will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
• While Evansville is locked into the No. 6 seed for next week's Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Championship, Bradley enters Saturday's game third in the league standings and in a 3-way battle for the tournament's No. 2 seed.
• With a win Saturday, Bradley would guarantee the Braves at least a .500 record for the third consecutive year, a first since a 4-year run from 2010-13.
VALLEY LOG JAM
• Entering the final day of the 2019 regular season, Bradley is one of three Missouri Valley Conference teams still fighting for seed position in next week's MVC Men's Soccer Championship.
• Undefeated #10 Missouri State has locked up the tournament's No. 1 seed as the regular-season champion, while Valparaiso (3-6-0, 9 points) is locked into the No. 5 seed and Evansville (0-9-0, 0 points) will be the No. 6 seed.
• As play begins Saturday, Loyola Chicago (4-2-3, 15 points) is second in The Valley standings, followed by Bradley (4-3-2, 14 points) and Drake (4-4-1, 13 points).
• Bradley can move into the runner-up position and earn the first-round tournament bye that comes with the No. 2 seed by coupling a win Saturday against Evansville with a Valparaiso result (win or tie) Saturday night at home against the Ramblers.
• All three teams - Bradley, Drake and Loyola Chicago - have the ability finish second, third or fourth in the final standings, based on the plethora of results outcomes possible Saturday.
SECOND SWEEP OPPORTUNITY
• For the 13th time in program history, Bradley has a chance to sweep two games against the same opponent in a single season when the Braves host Evansville Saturday.
• As part of The Valley's new, double round-robin schedule in 2019, Bradley earned a 1-0 win Oct. 13 at Evansville.
• Bradley completed a regular-season sweep of Valley rival Valparaiso by winning 2-1 in double overtime Oct. 1 at Valpo and 1-0 Oct. 27 at Shea Stadium, marking the first time in program history the Braves had beaten the same team twice in a regular season.
• In its 11 previous two-game opponent sweeps, Bradley's second win came in the postseason, nine times in the MVC Tournament and twice in the NCAA Tournament.
• A win Saturday would make the 2019 campaign the third season in program history in which the Braves pulled off two, 2-game opponent sweeps in the same season - 2011 (Loyola Chicago and SIU Edwardsville), 2013 (Evansville and Northwestern).
GAME OF CENTURIES
• Bradley enters Saturday's game with an all-time record of 299-304-65 in the program's 33-year NCAA Division I history.
• A win Saturday against Evansville would be the 300th victory in program history.
• The Braves also enter Saturday's game with an 81-99-20 record in 29 years of Missouri Valley Conference men's soccer competition.
• A loss Saturday to Evansville would be the 100th MVC defeat in program history.
DEFENSE REMAINS STOUT
• Through the season's first 16 games, Bradley continues to lead The Valley by allowing the opposition only a .337 shots-on-goal percentage - of the 187 shots allowed, only 63 have been on target.
• Bradley has never finished a season with an opponent shots-on-goal-percentage below .340 (2005).
• Northern Kentucky (10) is the only opponent to muster more than six shots on goal against Bradley and the Braves have limited 11 of their first 15 opponents to no more than four shots on goal.
• The Braves lead The Valley with five shutouts and a 0.83 goals against average in league play.
EXTRA TIME
• Including five games (1-0-4) this season, 13 of Bradley's 33 games the last two years have gone to extra time and the Braves have emerged from those games with a 4-1-8 (.615) record.
• For the second year in a row, Bradley has equaled the program record for the most ties (4) in a season, a number now reached six times in program history.
• Bradley's eight overtime games last year (3-1-4) were the most in a single season in program history.
• Now in his 24th year as Bradley head coach, Jim DeRose owns a 37-23-54 (.561) record in overtime games, including a NCAA record 24-game (10-0-14) unbeaten streak in overtime games from 2001-06.
• Bradley's current 9-game (4-0-5) unbeaten streak in overtime games is the third-longest in program history and is the longest since the Braves went unbeaten (8-0-6) in 14 consecutive overtime games from Aug. 31, 2012 through Sept. 14, 2014.
• Bradley's last overtime loss came to Loyola Chicago, 2-1, Sept. 29, 2018 in the annual Homecoming game.
LOCATION, LOCATION
• Bradley collected its first 10 points in the Missouri Valley Conference standings while playing five of its first six league games on the road.
• The opening Valley stretch came as part of an overall stretch of eight games that saw the Braves visit their opponents' home fields seven times.
• Bradley had 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 Braves also played 7-of-8 games away from home in 1990, but one of those eight included a neutral-site game.
• The heaviest stretch of Valley road games in program history previously 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, Bradley is closing the regular season by playing its final four Valley games at Shea Stadium, to this point with a 1-1-1 record against Missouri State (L), Loyola Chicago (T) and Valparaiso (W).
OFFENSE RUNS THROUGH WINTERMEYER
• A preseason All-MVC selection, junior forward Gerit Wintermeyer has fired off 60 of Bradley's 178 (33.7 percent) shots this season, including 25 of Bradley's 65 (.385) shots on goal.
• In the 1-0 loss to Eastern Illinois Sept. 13, Wintermeyer tied the Bradley single-game record with nine shots.
• Making Wintermeyer's nine shots against the Panthers stand out even more: Jha'Lon Johnson (16) and Rasmus Smidtslund (11) are the only other players on the team to total more than nine shots through the season's first 16 games.
• Wintermeyer leads The Valley and ranks 14th nationally by averaging 3.75 shots per game.
WINTERMEYER WINNERS
• Junior forward Gerit Wintermeyer netted his seventh career game-winning goal by scoring in the 90th minute Monday afternoon at Western Illinois.
• Wintermeyer's seven career game-winners are tied for the seventh-most in Bradley history and are the most by a Brave since Bryan Gaul delivered 15 game-winners from 2008-11.
• Wintermeyer now is tied for ninth in Bradley history with 19 total goals.
