Drake (16-6-2) vs. #5 North Carolina (15-2-3) - Drake from the Missouri Valley Conference will square off with North Carolina out of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday,  December 4 at Fetzer Field in picturesque Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

 

Sean Holmes’ Drake Bulldogs are the feel good team of the 2009 tourney showing a ton of resolve to win their first ever MVC Tourney with wins over Creighton and Evansville followed by NCAA Tourney wins over Western Illinois, Ohio State, and Boston College to advance to the Elite Eight but they are heading into uncharted territory in this one.  Holmes stated,  “We’ve never lost perspective that this is not only about winning games, which is nice, but we get to have an adventure, come together as a team , see new cities and this has been part of the experience as well.” 

 

Drake has been on a magical ride but make no mistake about it, they are a very competitive team and the success that they have enjoyed this year is not a fluke.  Ten starters returned from the 2008 squad that secured a school record thirteen wins and earned the program’s first ever invite to the NCAA Tourney. 

 

Drake’s 6-4 goal fest win over Boston College in the third round of play was an atypical match with both sides demonstrating porous defensive play.  Drake could easily have folded when they allowed Boston College to jump out to a two goal lead but they did not.  The Bulldogs have a very balanced attack lead by senior forward Garrett Webb (13g, 5a), senior midfielder Kevin Shrout (5g, 8a), senior midfielder Luke Gorczyca (7g, 2a) and junior midfielder Matt Kuhn (5g, 7a).  Drake has a veteran backline consisting of seniors Julien Edwards, Clavin Clark, and Brian Wurst and junior Nick Foster.  Redshirt junior Michael Drozd has been the starter between the pipes for Drake but redshirt sophomore Jordan Kadlec took his place in goal for the second half of the Boston College contest due to the fact that Drozd sustained an injury. 

 

North Carolina advanced to the Elite Eight with a 2-0 win over Brown and a 1-0 win over Indiana.  The Tar Heels are no stranger to Elite Eight action having reached this round five times this decade.  UNC is unbeaten in their last seven contests.  Their 1-0 win over Indiana was not vintage Tar Heel soccer but a win is a win at this time of the year. 

 

Sophomore forwards Billy Schuler and Alex Dixon appear to be gaining momentum up top which is a good sign for the Tar Heel faithful.  Ditto that for sophomore midfielder Kirk Urso.   Junior midfielder Michael Farfan (5g, 3a) will likely pose matchup problems for Drake.  The UNC defense lead by senior back Zach Loyd and senior netminder Brooks Haggerty has been stellar all year allowing only eleven goals year to date. 

 

If the Heels bring their “A” game they should prevail.  Lapses in play will be costly in this one.