Grand Canyon set to face Wisconsin in Madison


Grand Canyon Lopes (0-2-0, 0-0-0 WAC)	at	Wisconsin Badgers (0-0-2, 0-0-0 Big Ten)
		Sat, Sep. 2 at 5 p.m. MST
GCU Match Notes Media Guide		~~Game Notes~~ Live Stats Live Video

Grand Canyon wraps up a stretch of three road games to open the 2017 season when the Lopes travel to Madison, Wisc. to face Big Ten foe, Wisconsin, on Saturday evening. Both teams are searching for their first win of the year in the first meeting between the two programs. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. MST on Saturday evening.

Both teams played their fair share of soccer over opening weekend. Between GCU and Wisconsin, all four of the teams' games this season have gone into overtime. Unfortunately for the Lopes, both ended in narrow losses.

It was a challenging opening weekend slate for Grand Canyon who played two matches in Omaha, one on Friday against now-No. 21 Omaha and another on Sunday against No. 14 Creighton. The Lopes pushed both games into overtime but fell just short in both instances.

In the season opener on Friday, Grand Canyon scored the first goal of the match. Charlie Keating fed Niki Jackson deep in the box and the Lopes were up 1-0. After leading for nearly 35 minutes, Omaha netted the equalizer on a controversial play. Goalkeeper Corey Marques stopped a long shot from the right wing, but the official ruled that he backed too far into the goal and ruled the ball had sufficiently cleared the line for a score. The game went into extra time where the Mavericks' offensive standout, Emmanuel Hamzat, found the top right corner of the net to win the game.

Days later at Creighton, GCU's offensive opportunities were few and far between. The Lopes defense, however, limited Creighton to just three shots on goal throughout the contest and no scores in regulation. Nearing the conclusion of the second overtime which would have ended the match in a scoreless draw, Creighton scored on a set piece off a corner kick, with a 6-foot-2 player skying high to head the ball home.

Wisconsin played the full 110 minutes against both of its opponents last weekend, Tulsa and Oral Roberts. In Friday's opener against Tulsa, each team scored one goal per half and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. On Sunday, Wisconsin scored the early goal in the 13th minute and led for nearly 65 minutes before Oral Roberts scored a late goal and held on for a tie.

Wisconsin is coming off of a season in 2016 where they finished third in the regular season standings and advanced to the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament.

For more GCU men's soccer news, notes and numbers, click here to view this week's match notes and click here to view the media guide.

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Players Mentioned

Josh Drack

Niki Jackson

Charlie Keating

Corey Marques

Evan Waldrep

Grand Canyon University Athletics