Butler men, women split doubleheader with Big Ten foes
INDIANAPOLIS — A Thursday evening doubleheader saw a pair of Big Ten foes visit the Sellick Bowl to face the Butler men’s and women’s squads. The Bulldogs traded victories, with the women falling 2-1 to Illinois in the first match and the men wrapping up the night with a 1-0 win over Wisconsin.
Early on in the women’s game, it was all Bulldogs. Celia Gaynor, Aliya Diagne and Payton Black worked well together in the midfield linking play from defense to offense, but the final product often lacked in the final third.
Illinois took advantage of one of its few opportunities in the first half and punished the Bulldogs for not capitalizing on theirs. Though it came against the run of play, the Illini opened the scoring through Kelly Maday about 18 minutes in.
The Butler women continued pushing the envelope despite being down, but soon found their deficit doubled. A foul by Annika Schmidt in the box led to a spot conversion by Illinois’ Eileen Murphy.
Butler pulled one back with about 20 minutes left. Katie Soderstrom skinned her defender and ripped a shot that forced a diving save by Illinois goalkeeper Jaelyn Cunningham, and Anja Savich tapped in the rebound.
Illinois hung on for the 2-1 win to improve to 5-1 on the year, while Butler fell to 4-3. The Bulldogs had to have felt like they dropped points in this one after out-shooting Illinois 20-8 total and 8-3 on target while bossing the majority of the possession.
In the men’s game, Butler asserted itself early on but had nothing to show for it, similar to the Butler women’s start. A physical first half ended with 12 fouls committed and zero goals.
Wilmer Cabrera Jr. — yes, the son of the Montreal Impact head coach — eventually produced the first Bulldogs goal of the night. The 5-8 freshman attacker, who has USL experience and comes from the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., curled in a left-footed shot from inside the box. Alex Lehtinen and Logan Lee were credited with the assist.
It stood as the lone tally of the match, becoming Cabrera Jr.’s second game-winning goal of the season. Bulldogs goalkeeper Gabriel Gjergji, a sophomore from Italy, turned in a solid shift in net with two saves to preserve the clean sheet, but wasn’t forced to stand on his hand thanks to the solid team defending in front of him.
With the win, Butler improved to 3-1 as the Big East season approaches; the Badgers dropped to 2-3.
Up next for the Butler men is a Tuesday trip to SIU Edwardsville, while the women will host Kent State on Sunday.
Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KJboxing.
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