Nick Shackelford, Alex Sweetin, Adnan Gabeljic and Jon Roeckle: these four men entered Robert R. Hermann Stadium for likely the final time of their collegiate careers. All four had a hand in the final regular season home match against the Saint Joseph’s Hawks.

The Billikens exited Hermann Stadium with a key 4-1 victory to remain tied at the top of the Atlantic 10 conference standings with George Mason. Shackelford had a key save and deflection, Sweetin and Roeckle each had one assist and Gabeljic scored a goal in the second half.

“I thought it was a good game. That was our fourth game in a week,” said Head Coach Mike McGinty. “It was nice to get back home. It was nice to send our seniors out in the right way, and the guys, after having their hearts broken on Thursday [against Louisville],put in a good performance for their seniors.”

After a tough overtime road loss against nationally-ranked Louisville, the Billikens responded in their final regular season home match.

After honoring the four seniors on the team, the Bills went out ans attacked early. In the 14th minute, Anthony Manning from about 65 yards out sent a ball against the wind toward the box. The St. Joe’s keeper mistimed his jump, allowing Raymond Lee to get in behind him and kick the ball into the then empty net. This gave the Bills an early 1-0 on Lee’s fourth goal of the season.

However, in the 35th minute, St Joe’s responded with a goal of their own, getting the ball under Shackelford for their only goal of the match. In the 37th minute, St. Joe’s had another opportunity on goal, but Shackelford deflected the ball and it hit off the crossbar. The follow-up shot by St. Joe’s was high and that was the last true threat from the Hawks. The Bills controlled the game the rest of the way.

In the 44th minute, Robert Kristo was battling with a St. Joe’s player that was attempting to get the ball out of bounds. However, Kristo won control of the ball after the player from St. Joe’s slid and was unaware that the ball was along the end line. Kristo weaved his way past another defender and then rocketed a ball past the St. Joe’s keeper near the inside post to make it a 2-1 game just before halftime. That goal was Kristo’s seventh goal of the season.

In the 54th minute, Sweetin took a set piece just outside the box and sent it straight to Kristo, who headed it in the back of the net for his second goal of the day and his eighth goal of the season. That was Kristo’s second straight game with two goals.

In the 84th minute, Gabeljic came in for Kristo and added another insurance goal. Roeckle ran down the middle of the field and got a ball in for Gabeljic who shot the ball just inside the box for his third goal of the season and giving the Bills a 4-1 lead.

“I’m pretty happy that the boys responded for the seniors; we tried into the mind frame of everybody playing our last game at Hermann Stadium,” said Shackelford. “It means a lot to play my last game at Hermann, coming to Saint Louis was a second chance to keep playing when McGinty signed me and I hope these guys recognized that we gave all that we could these four years.”

For Sweetin, it was bittersweet to finish his senior season undefeated at home, but also recognize this will likely be his final game at Hermann Stadium.

“That was one of our goals as senior leaders; we didn’t want to give points away at home, and we didn’t do that,” said Sweetin, beginning to recognize the emotion of the moment. “It is just so natural coming up from Chaifetz, up to the locker room and that became a part of who we were. I think the part that I am going to miss the most is just the group of guys and playing in front of my family; they do a great job in supporting me.”

Despite the emotion of this game, the Bills still have unfinished business. They still have two matches left in Atlantic 10 conference play. They sit atop the A-10 conference standings with George Mason with 14 points each.

The Bills will go on the road to conclude their conference season against Rhode Island on Friday, Nov. 8, and then at Massachusetts on Sunday, Nov. 10.

“We have to play well and come away with two wins and that will get us where we want to be going into the post-season. That is what we are looking for to close the season,” said McGinty.

The post-season will begin for the Bills with the A-10 conference championship in Dayton, Ohio on Nov. 14-17 where they will compete for a second-straight A-10 conference title.

After a rough non-conference schedule, the men’s soccer team began their conference season with a three-game home stand at Hermann Stadium. The Billikens ended their stretch with two wins against Fordham and Dayton. They also had one draw against George Washington. The Bills are now 8-3-1 going on the road against St. Bonaventure and Duquesne to begin the road portion of their conference schedule.

“I thought it was a good way to start the Atlantic 10,” said head coach Mike McGinty after the victory against Fordham. “We have high expectation to do well in the league and that was a tough Fordham team that came in here and had a great game plan… and I thought the guys handled it pretty well and did okay managing it.”

The Bills opened the conference season against the Fordham Rams on Friday, Oct. 11. Francisco Vizcaino got the first goal of the conference season for the Bills. In the 33rd minute, Vizcaino collected a rebound after a David Graydon shot and buried it in the back of the net. That was Vizcaino’s third goal of the season and gave the Bills a 1-0 lead.

“It was a rebound; I got a lucky bounce and put it past the keeper,” said Vizcaino on his goal.

In the 42nd minute, Kingsley Bryce added an insurance goal. After a beautiful sequence out of the back, the ball went to Alex Sweetin who passed it on to Vizcaino, who deflected it to Bryce, who knocked it into the goal. That was Bryce’s third goal of the season. That goal gave the Bills a 2-0 lead that they would not relinquish. However, the game against George Washington on Sunday, Oct. 13 was a different story.

The game was stagnant until the 44th minute when Sweetin scored a goal with the assist from Bryce and Filip Pavisic. That goal was Sweetin’s fourth goal of the season. That goal gave the Bills the 1-0 lead just before halftime.

The second half had a series of questionable calls from the officials, but the most hurtful to the Bills was Graydon being issued his fifth yellow card of the season. According to NCAA rules, if a player accumulates five yellow cards, they must sit out one match. Graydon had to sit out the match against Dayton. If Graydon receives three more yellow cards, then he must sit out another match.

After pressuring the Bills, George Washington broke through with a goal in the 88th minute, tying the game at 1-1. The Bills came close in the second overtime to scoring a goal, but could not convert. This gave the Bills their first draw of the season.

Saturday, Oct. 19, the Bills faced the Dayton Flyers. Dayton came into the game being the only team in the nation not having lost a match with a 10-0-2 record. The Bills changed that record on Saturday.

Bryce had a memorable game, scoring two goals and having one assist. He was involved in all three Billiken goals. In the 29th minute, Bryce got his first goal after getting a ball from Sweetin and knocked it into the back of the net. That was Bryce’s fourth goal of the season. In the 65th minute, Bryce gave an assist to Raymond Lee who knocked it into an empty net for the second goal. In the 72nd minute, the Bills got their third goal of the match after Robert Kristo made an assist to Bryce who beat the keeper for his second tally of the match and fifth goal of the season.The Bills allowed a goal late, but came away with the 3-1 victory. The Bills have a 2-0-1 conference record, giving them seven points, which places them as tied for second in the conference standings. La Salle currently sits atop the conference standings with nine points.

The Bills will begin their conference road schedule this Friday at St. Bonaventure and then will travel to  Pittsburgh on Sunday.

There is no place like home. That home field advantage was evident Saturday night and Wednesday night when the Billikens faced Central Arkansas and then No.4 Creighton. Over 4,000 people showed up to men’s soccer homecoming match against the University of Central Arkansas and over 3,000 for the game against No.4 Creighton. The No. 21 Billikens treated a large homecoming crowd to a 4-1 victory against Central Arkansas and a crucial 1-0 victory against No. 4 Creighton.

The victories against Central Arkansas and Creighton gives the Bills a 6-2 record going into their final non-conference match against Virginia Commonwealth. The victory against Creighton also gives the Bills a signature victory on this young season.

The Bills were without two of their regular starters with Jon Roeckle and Raymond Lee both being injured for each match.

In the Central Arkansas match, the Bills struck first after a Central Arkansas defender had an apparent handball in the box. This gave the Bills a penalty kick in the 22nd minute. Alex Sweetin converted on the penalty kick for his second goal of the season. The Bills held a 1-0 lead going into halftime.

However, in the 55th minute, Central Arkansas got a goal after a misplay on the backline to make it a 1-1 game. A mere 50 seconds later, the Bills responded. Francisco Vizcaino sent a ball over the top of Central Arkansas defense to Robert Kristo who controlled it with his chest and kicked over the head of the Central Arkansas keeper. That was Kristo’s third goal of the season and it reclaimed a 2-1 lead for the Bills.

“It was a good reaction to giving up a goal,” said Head Coach Mike McGinty. “I thought we were a little casual when we gave it up and we should have done better coming out at halftime. I thought that we started the second half a little complacent and we have to have a little more discipline coming out of halftime.”

The Bills got some help from Central Arkansas in the 67th minute with an own goal giving the Bills a 3-1 advantage and then in the 88th minute Adnan Gabeljic tacked on an insurance goal in the 88th minute to give the Bills their final goal of the match.

“That is a different level,” said Kristo, talking about the game against Creighton on Wednesday. “That’s the game that we want to play. That is the NCAA Tournament game that we are looking for; that’s a test, that’s the big one. We had one against UConn, unfortunately we did not come through and we came a little short. Now it is another big test and this one we have to go through and win this one.”

Creighton presented a whole new challenge on Wednesday. Yet, the Bills came through with a victory against the No. 4 team in the nation.

The Bills had a near opportunity on goal with a minute left in the first half. However, Filip Pavisic could not head the ball into the goal. The Bills went into halftime with the match knotted at 0-0.

In the 48th minute, Pavisic got his second yellow card of the match and knocked the Bills down to ten men on the field.

However, with ten men on the field, the Bills continued to pressure the Creighton defense. They finally got an opportunity in the 51st minute. The Creighton keeper rolled the ball out to his defenders, but none of them closed in on the ball.

Alex Sweetin attacked on the misplay after he fired a ball from about 18 yards off just past the Creighton keeper to give the Bills a 1-0 lead early in the second half.

“It was lucky how it got to me,” said Sweetin. “I could have played it to Robbie or decided to shoot that one and it decided to go in the net.”

After the goal, Creighton applied pressure on the Bills defense. Nick Shackelford made a huge save in the 56th minute to preserve the 1-0 lead. After that, the Bills defense stood firm in the face of the pressure to come away with the victory.

“The guys did good, they did really, really well,” said Head Coach Mike McGinty. “There was a ton of adversity and a bunch of things that didn’t go our way. We could have taken the easy way out and nobody did, everybody kept their head down and kept working. They showed a lot of character tonight.”

The team will travel to Richmond to take on Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday, Oct. 6 at noon to complete their non-conference schedule conference.

The No.12 Connecticut Huskies jumped out to an early lead and never looked back against the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team. The Billikens lost on the road against UConn 2-1 after the Huskies got an early 2-0 lead. The Bills fall to 4-2 on the season as they are beginning the toughest leg of their non-conference schedule.

“That is a good team and it’s hard to go on the road and give up two goals and expect to come back,” said Head Coach Mike McGinty to Saint Louis Athletics after the loss.

UConn found itself on the board first when Cyle Larin scored a goal from the top of the box. This gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute.

Early in the second half, UConn tallied another goal after an Ethan Decker free kick. This gave the Huskies the 2-0 lead that put the Billikens in a deep hole.

The Bills did catch break in the 71st minute when there was a foul in the UConn box and Alex Sweetin received a penalty kick. Sweetin converted the kick, which cut the UConn lead down to a 2-1 advantage. Yet, it was not enough as the Bills did not get another scoring opportunity. This was the Bills second loss in three matches.

The game also hurt the Bills on the defensive line. Senior defender Jon Roeckle had to leave the game in the first half with an injury. There is no word on the extent of his injury or if he will miss any time.

The Bills will return home to Robert R. Hermann Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28 for their homecoming game against Central Arkansas. The Bills defeated Central Arkansas 3-0 during last season’s homecoming match. Robert Kristo scored two goals during last year’s matchup.

After the homecoming match, the Billikens will face their next major challenge in the formerly ranked No. 1 Creighton Bluejays. Last season, the Bills stunned the Bluejays with a 3-1 victory on the road. Midfielder Raymond Lee scored two goals in the match against the Bluejays and Kristo tacked on an insurance goal late in the match. That victory caused the Billikens to surge into becoming a ranked team. Creighton will be looking for revenge from last season’s embarrassing loss.

After the visit by Creighton, the Bills will conclude their non-conference schedule with a rare non-conference game against Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday, Oct. 6. SLU and VCU are predicted to finish first and second respectably in the Atlantic 10 pre-season coaches’ poll.

The home match on Saturday against Central Arkansas will begin at 7:30 p.m. There will be a fireworks show at halftime.

The Saint Louis University men’s soccer team bounced back from last week’s loss with a 1-0 victory against the University of Denver. The Billikens will be 4-1 entering their first match against a nationally ranked team, the No. 12 Connecticut Huskies.

“It is kind of funny because I think we played better soccer against Evansville and found a way to lose; today we maybe didn’t play as well, but found a way to win,” said Head Coach Mike McGinty. “So, moving forward we want to combine the both. We want to play well, we want to improve every week and we want to get results. It has been a brutal five-game stretch in a short period of time.”

The Bills had their only goal in the 18th minute. David Graydon passed a ball off to a sprinting Jon Roeckle who crossed the ball into box for Robert Kristo who slipped in at the far post and headed the ball into the net. It was Kristo’s second goal of the season.

“It was a great ball by Roeckle to the far post and the defender just stood there and I just beat him to it and got right in there,” said Kristo.

Denver applied pressured late, but Bills keeper Nick Shackelford made a couple of key saves in the second half to preserve the Bills shutout. After playing four games in eight days, the Bills will have a full week of rest before squaring off against No. 12 Connecticut. This is the first nationally ranked team the Bills will face this season.

The Connecticut Huskies are a loaded team. Like the Billikens, they return a lot of talent from last season’s team and received a lot of pre-season hype. Last season, the Huskies made it all the way to the NCAA quarterfinals before losing to Creighton.

UConn lost its first match of the season to Bradley University on Saturday which knocked them down to No. xx in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll. Last week, they were ranked No. 3 by the same poll.

Two key players that the Bills must watch out for on UConn are junior forward Mamadou Doudou Diouf and goalkeeper Andre Blake. Both players are on the Mac Hermann Trophy Watch List, the Heisman trophy of college soccer.

Diouf was second-team All-American and first-team All-Big East last season. He scored 15 goals and had two assists last season. So far, he only has one assist this season, but is a major threat due to his scoring ability.

Blake was the NSCAA first team All-American and two-time Big East goalkeeper of the year. Blake had a 0.54 goal against average last season and a 0.39 gaa average his freshman year. Blake recently had a 293 minute scoreless streak which was snapped on Saturday against Bradley University.

“I think we will be very excited for it, once we get a couple days rest we will be great,” said McGinty.

Kristo, last season’s top goal scorer, has been fighting ankle and fitness issues throughout this season, but has seen a lot of minutes recently due to two double overtime games against Northern Illinois and Evansville. He claims he is “pretty close” to going a full 90 minutes.

“We are excited,” said Kristo. “I mean those are the games that we want to play, that’s where we want to be, we want to play the number one, two, three teams so we can become that team.”

After the UConn game, the Billikens will return home for their homecoming match against Central Arkansas on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.

After a blowout of Cincinnati and a double overtime match against Northern Illinois, the No. 6 ranked Billikens suffered a major upset at the hands of the Evansville Aces.Evansville midfielder Mark Gonzalez scored the golden goal in double overtime to hand the Billikens their first loss of the season. The loss drops the Bills to an overall record of 3-1.

“We showed a lot of heart, character and determination today. We played with the winning mentality that we have been preaching,” said Head Coach Mike McGinty to Saint Louis Athletics after the victory against Northern Illinois.

The Billikens faced off against the Cincinnati Bearcats last Friday night and then competed against the Northern Illinois Huskies on Sunday morning.

The Bills asserted themselves in the Cincinnati game. The first of four Bills goals came when sophomore defender Julian Gieske headed in his first career goal off a Bills corner kick. Several minutes later, David Graydon tacked another goal off a free kick. In the 42nd minute, senior forward Adnan Gabeljic won the ball at midfield and charged down the field for the Bills third goal. In the second half, Francisco Vizcaino added to the scoring fest with his own header off a rebound for the Bills fourth and final goal of the game. However, the Bills next game would not be so easy.

The Northern Illinois Huskies did not go down without a long, drawn-out fight from the Bills. The teams had four shots each going into halftime, but neither side scored. The game turned in the 52nd minute when Northern Illinois’ James Stevenson received a red card which drew the Huskies side down to ten players on the field, but the Huskies keeper Andrew Galeser was having “a hell of a game” which included six saves.

The game stretched into overtime, but one frame was not enough to decide the match. The game went into a second overtime, and in the 105th minute, the Bills finally broke through. Alex Sweetin sent a ball to Robert Kristo who tapped it over to junior Kingsley Bryce who tapped it in for the golden goal and Bills victory.

“Kingsley got a goal just before the end of the second overtime,” said senior goalkeeper Nick Shackelford. “We literally all just fell to the ground in exhaustion and gratitude.”

After a loss to  Evansville on Wednesday, the Bills will return home for their next home match against the University of Denver. The Denver Pioneers were one of five teams that beat the Bills last season. They defeated the Bills at Denver in overtime 2-1 on a golden goal by Denver’s Ryan Dodson.

After four games this season, the Pioneers are led in scoring by senior midfielder Cole Chapleski who has two goals and one assist so far this season.

Also, the man who handed the Bills one of their losses last season, Dodson, will be on the field for this game. In four games this season, Dodson has just one assist.

After the game against the University of Denver, the Bills will head back on the road to take on their first major challenge this season playing the No. 3 Connecticut Huskies.

The game against the University of Denver will be played at Hermann Stadium on Saturday, September. 14 at 7 p.m. central time.

Training with Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos at Hermann Stadium, playing against semi-professional teams in Spain, watching Chelsea and two other professional teams train and seeing some of the best soccer in the world all in one offseason. The Saint Louis men’s soccer team was very busy this off-season as they went across the world and some of world’s premiere soccer talent came to the university.

Although it might be cliché, the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team had an offseason to remember. However, when you travel to Spain to play and observe professional teams and then have two of the biggest soccer clubs in the world come to your grounds, the cliché seems appropriate. This offseason, Chelsea FC from the Barclays Primer League and Real Madrid from La Liga in Spain played against third division Spanish teams Agrupación Deportiva Colmenar Viejo and Atletìco Pìnto.

The team’s whirlwind of an offseason began in May when Chelsea came to Hermann Stadium to train for their exhibition match against Manchester City on May 23. The next day, the Billikens got to attend the open training session at Busch Stadium and were honored for last season’s Atlantic 10 soccer title.

“We got to shake hands with the guys, be up close and personal and watch them train,” said senior goalkeeper Nick Shackelford. “At the training we actually drive them back and forth from their locker room. They posed for every picture… David Luiz (a Chelsea defender) were messing with the girls saying ‘Hey girls, girls’ like dancing on the golf carts and they told us to stop the golf carts and they signed autographs for everybody.”

However, the Bills could not stay for the match because they were heading for a plane bound of Madrid the next day. After a long flight, the team arrived in Madrid and immediately traveled to Ciudad de Futbol, the national team’s soccer stadium and got to train on their field. The same field that Iker Casillas, David Villa, Cesc Fàbregas, Andrés Iniesta and countless other famous Spanish soccer players have trained.

After the training session the team took in some culture. They traveled to Plaza Mayor, Cathedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena where they attended a mid-afternoon Spanish mass and then went to a restaurant to watch the Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. However, this trip was about business and the team still had two games to prepare for in the next few days.

The next day the Bills played the first of their two games against Agrupación Deportiva Colmenar Viejo. The Bills quickly took a 2-0 lead in the first 30 minutes of the game, but in the second the Spanish team scored twice and then in extra time scored on a very controversial call to claim a 3-2 victory against the Bills. After the disappointing loss, the team traveled to see Atletico Madrid, who had just won the Copa del Rey against inner city rival Real Madrid.

The  team then traveled to Real Madrid’s home stadium, Estadio Santiago Bernebaéu. They then went to Museo del Prado. The museum houses some of the greatest works of art in the world including works by: Francisco de Goya, Diego Velazquez and El Greco. After another day of sightseeing, the team prepared for its second game of the trip.

Before the game, the team saw Getafe, a Li Liga team, train and visited the newest building at SLU’s Madrid Campus, but then had to prepare for their final game against Atletìco Pìnto. The Bills took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but gave up four goals in the second half. However, the Bills responded with two second- half goals, but could not score a third goal to tie the game and lost 4-3.

After seeing another La Liga team train and some more sightseeing, the team returned to America.

“The trip to Spain was honestly a dream come true for me. Not once did I think I’d be in Spain playing ‘fútbol’” said junior midfielder Kingsley Bryce. “I was fortunate enough to visit the city that I read about in books and learned about from TV One of my favorite moments during that trip was attending an Atlético Madrid game. It was the most eye-opening experience I have had in terms of being a fan of the game. I grew closer to my team in ways that I had not expected.”

After 10 amazing days for any soccer player, one would think that it couldn’t get any better, but the Bills off- season got even more incredible.

On August 8th and 9th, Real Madrid visited Saint Louis University to train for their match against Inter Milan at the Edward Jones Dome. Real Madrid has some of the most well-known soccer talent in the world including Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and many other well-known players. Members of both the men’s and women’s soccer team were able to spend time with Real Madrid.

For Shackelford, seeing Casillas, Real’s goalkeeper, was his favorite part of the whole experience. For Bryce, it was not a player, but a coach for Real Madrid that was his favorite person to meet.

“My favorite person to see by far was Zinedine Zidane. I believe he is the greatest player to play the game, and meeting him was such an honor,” said Bryce.

The offseason was truly one to remember, but what lessons have been learned from all of this experience?

“That environment (in Spain) and being so far away from home and out of our element prepared us to go onto any college campus on the United States and feel confident,” said Shackelford. The team will need that confidence as they go on the road to three very competitive soccer environments in Connecticut, Louisville and Virginia Commonwealth.

This offseason showed the Bills the effort and preparation that goes into playing professional soccer and the trip to Spain certainly left a major impression on them.