Pirates Continue Road Trip, Head to Butler Wednesday

South Orange, N.J. – The Seton Hall men's soccer team will head to Indianapolis for their second of three road matches to end the 2021 regular season. The Pirates will take on the Butler Bulldogs on Wednesday night at the Bud and Jackie Sellick Bowl. The match was original scheduled for Oct. 2, but was postponed following unavoidable travel complications. The action will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports with kickoff set for 7 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
The Pirates came up short on the road at Creighton on Saturday, 3-1. After a back-and-forth first half, Creighton broke through late when the Pirates were called for a handball just outside their own penalty area resulting in a Bluejay freekick. Creighton's Callum Watson stepped up to bury the set piece for the 1-0 lead.

For most of the second half, the Pirates were the aggressors, outshooting the hosts 8-5. However, in the 83rd minute, the Bluejays were able to double the lead when Manu Toledano was able to beat the Pirates to the near post and find the back of the net.

Less than three minutes later, the Pirates were able to answer off the foot of CJ Tibbling (Jarna, Sweden). James Boote (Southampton, England) fed Ian Albuquerque (São Paulo, Brazil) who was able to send a cross that was knocked down by a Bluejay defender, the ricochet was knocked in by Tibbling to cut the Bluejay lead in half.

86' | GOOOOOAAAAAALLL!

CJ Tibbling cuts the lead in half! His fourth tally of the season!#HALLin 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/qzL2oVHKhJ
— Seton Hall Men's Soccer (@SHUMSOC) October 24, 2021

Creighton would add an insurance tally just 49 seconds later when Diego Guitierrez found the back of the net off a Miguel Ventura helper for a 3-1 final.

SCOUTING – Butler (6-6-2, 4-2-1)

The Bulldogs are currently riding a four-game unbeaten streak with wins in three of their last four conference matchups. Butler currently sits fourth in the BIG EAST standings and would host a first round matchup if the season ended today.
Wilmer Cabrera, Jr., currently leads the Bulldogs offensively with nine points on a team-leading four goals and one assist to his credit.
In net, Gabriel Gjergji has played every minute for Butler this season. The keeper has a 0.89 GAA and has made 43 saves between the pipes for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 5-1-1 with the Pirates lone victory coming in 2018. In the previous matchup between the two squads, the Bulldogs won on the road in South Orange in 2019. Andreas Nota (Rome, Italy) picked up a career-high 11 saves as the Pirates fell at home to the Bulldogs. The Pirates played the final 43 minutes with 10 players in the setback.

NEWS & NOTES

CJ Tibbling scored for The Hall last time out at Creighton. For Tibbling, it was his 18th career goal as a Pirate. Tibbling also tallied twice for Seton Hall against No. 1 Georgetown. The multi-goal game was Tibbling's third of his career and first since the 2018 season.
On Oct. 13 against DePaul, Andreas Nota picked up his fifth win of the campaign in a clean sheet against the Blue Demons. The victory, Nota's 26th, moves him one back of third place on the program's career leaderboard behind Alex McDonald's 27 career wins. The following match, the Pirates drew St. John's (RV) at Belson Stadium, 0-0. Nota made two saves enroute to his second consecutive shutout. The graduate student earned his 13th career clean sheet, moving himself into a tie for second most shutouts in program history with Steve Armenti. Boris Pardo leads The Hall all-time with 16 career shutouts. For his efforts Nota earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll.
In the 1-0 road victory over the Blue Demons the Pirates held DePaul without a single shot on net. The win marks Seton Hall's first road victory at DePaul in program history as well as the first time the Pirates have blanked the Blue Demons in 11 matchups between the two squads. The clean sheet in a BIG EAST road victory is the first for the Pirates since they blanked St. John's, 1-0, on Nov. 6, 2014.
Fourth in the BIG EAST with a team-leading 15 points, Johannes Pex converted his second and third penalty kicks of the season at Fordham earning him a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll. The tallies for Pex were just 62 seconds apart and served as his second career multi-goal game with his first coming in last season's season-opener at NJIT. Pex also tallied twice and picked up an assist across wins against Delaware and NC State earning BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week honor (9/6). The junior was also named to College Soccer News' National Team of the Week. Pex was also selected to the conference's weekly honor roll following his three assists against NJIT (9/10).
The Pirates are 5-2-0 in games where they were the first team to score. Dating back to the start of last season The Hall is a combined 13-3-1 when striking first.
Thirteen different Pirates have found the back of the net this season with 32 assists on 26 total goals. The Hall had tallies from 12 different players last season.
As of Oct. 26, The Hall currently ranks third in the BIG EAST in total goals (26). The Pirates also sit third in the conference and 20th in the nation in total assists (32).
Seven different Pirates have at least three assists this season: Johannes Pex (5), Raz Amir (4), JP Marin (4), Andreas Borg (3), Jordan Jowers (3) and Denis Kelmendi (3). Overall, 12 Pirates have at least one helper on the campaign.
The Seton Hall men's soccer team was picked second in the BIG EAST Conference Preseason Coaches Poll as the reigning BIG EAST champions were awarded 93 points including three first place votes. Georgetown took the top spot in the poll edging the Pirates by just five points while Creighton, the third team picked, was awarded 74 points.
Senior CJ Tibbling was selected as the conference's Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous selection for the Preseason All-BIG EAST squad. Tibbling is coming off a 2020 Second Team All-America selection as well as First Team All-BIG EAST honors. On the offensive end, Tibbling led the Pirates with seven goals and 17 points on the season to go along with three assists. With his seven tallies, Tibbling ranked second in the BIG EAST and 20th in the country in goals scored.
Senior Luca Dahn was honored as the BIG EAST's Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and earned a spot Preseason All-BIG EAST team. Dahn was awarded a 2020 Second Team All-America selection as well as First Team All-BIG EAST honors. In his first year in a Seton Hall uniform, Dahn logged over 1500 minutes for The Hall and was on the pitch for all but nine minutes throughout the campaign. Despite lining up as a center back, Dahn also scored twice for The Hall while registering 12 shots on net, second best on the team.