Bradley Opens 35th NCAA Division I Season Thursday

The Braves will welcome 2021 spring NCAA Tournament participant Omaha to Shea Stadium Thursday

Bobby Parker, Sr. Associate AD for Communications and Event & Facility Operations Soccer 8/24/2021 9:00:00 AM

Bradley Soccer will open its 35th NCAA Division I season Thursday night when the Braves host Omaha in non-conference action at Shea Stadium. Single-game and season Tailgate Lot reservations are available online and single-game tickets will be available for purchase Thursday night at the Shea Stadium box office, beginning at 6 o'clock.

GAME PREVIEW
Omaha Maverics (0-0-0) at Bradley Braves (0-0-0)
Date: Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: Peoria, IL
Venue: Shea Stadium
Tickets: $6 adults, $3 youth (13 & under) and seniors (65+); FREE Bradley University students, faculty and staff, Braves Club (Gold and up) and active military members and immediate family, all with valid ID.
Live Coverage: ESPN+ | Live Stats

35TH SEASON OPENER
• Bradley Soccer will open its 35th season as a NCAA Division I program Thursday night by hosting reigning Summit League champion Omaha in a 7 p.m. non-conference clash at Shea Stadium.
• Bradley will open a season at home for the fifth consecutive year, the 20th time in Jim DeRose's 26 years as head coach and the 25th time in the program's 35 years.
• Bradley is 21-8-5 (.691) all-time in season-opening games, including 19-3-3 (.820) under head coach Jim DeRose and 8-1-2 (.818) in season-openers played at Shea Stadium.

SERIES HISTORY
7th Meeting | Omaha leads 4-2-0
• Thursday's game will mark the season-opener for both the Braves and Mavericks.
• The seventh meeting in the all-time series, Omaha owns a 4-2-0 all-time record against Bradley, including a 2-2-0 mark at Shea Stadium.
• Bradley won the first meeting, 3-2 Sept. 2, 2012, as well as the most-recent encounter, 3-1, Oct. 16, 2018.
• The teams were scheduled to meet Oct. 15, 2019 in Omaha, but Bradley's travel issues after its 1-0 win Oct. 13 at Evansville forced the cancellation of the 2019 game.

FAMILIAR COACHING MATCHUP
• Bradley will be facing a Bob Warming-coached Omaha team for the second time, but the Braves are plenty familiar with one of the winningest coaches in college soccer.
• Entering his fourth season as the head coach at Omaha, Warming is kicking off his 44th season overall as a collegiate head coach with a 479-260-88 career record.
• Prior to his current run at Omaha, Warming served as the head coach at Creighton in two stints, 1990-94 (5-0-0) and 2001-09 (12-2-1), building a 17-2-1 combined record against Bradley in those 14 seasons.
• Including the 2018 meeting in his first year at Omaha, Warming is 17-3-1 all-time against Bradley.

PRESEASON RECAP
• For the first time in head coach Jim DeRose's 26 seasons at Bradley, the Braves played three exhibition games against NCAA Division I competition this preseason.
• Playing the three exhibition games in a span of just eight days, the Braves posted an 0-1-2 preseason record.
• Bradley opened the preseason Aug. 13 by battling Big Ten Conference host Northwestern to a scoreless draw.
• The Braves followed with back-to-back games against Big EAST Conference competition, playing 2021 spring NCAA Tournament second-round qualifier Marquette to a 1-1 draw in the annual Danny Dahlquist Memorial Game Aug. 17 at Peoria Notre Dame High School, before falling to perennial power Creighton, 4-2, Friday night at Morrison Stadium.
• Bradley's active career scoring leader entering this season, sophomore midfielder Rasmus Smitdslund (Helsinki, Finland) scored all three preseason goals for the Braves.

LOOKING AHEAD
• The next eight games on Bradley's schedule will move in pairs, alternating between two road games and two home games.
• The Braves will visit Wright State Sept. 2 and Oral Roberts Sept. 6, before returning to Shea Stadium for a two-games-in-three-days home stand Sept. 10 versus DePaul and Sept. 12 against Utah Valley.
• The Sunday afternoon game against Utah Valley Sept. 12 will be the final tune-up before beginning the Missouri Valley Conference double round-robin schedule with road games Sept. 18 at Drake and Sept. 25 at SIU Edwardsville.

FOLLOW THE BRAVES
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