The Bluejays’s lone goal came in the 42nd minute when junior forward/midfielder Fabian Herbers put one past senior goaltender Zach Bennett after Bennett initially misplayed the ball.

“Honestly, I saw him coming at me and I thought I had enough time to take a touch across my body and clear it out to my right, you know keep position or put it down the field,” Bennett said, “I didn’t realize how fast he was coming”.

Creighton played both a physical and aggressive game, outshooting the no. 18 ranked Spartans 12-7, and again outshot the spartans on shots on goal 3-1. The Bluejays also had 17 fouls on the day, compared to five Spartan fouls, and yellow cards were handed out to Creighton sophomore Lucas Stauffer (52:20) and senior Eric DeJulio (72:58).

But despite Creighton’s physicality the Spartans struggled offensively and got off to a sluggish start, being outshot by the Bluejays 10-2 in the first half. Goals have come at somewhat of a premium for the Spartans this year, by scoring six goals through five games, however four of those goals came in a 4-0 victory against Niagara back on September 4.

“I think really you have to be patient and keep playing your game, because if you force it and you try to do too much and that’s when everything shuts down” senior midfielder Jason Stacy said. “If you just keep playing your game and trust in everyone’s ability the the goals will come.”

And although the Spartans got off to a slow start in Sunday’s game, they were able to keep up with Creighton the entire game, including outshooting them in the second half 5-2 and also limiting themselves to only four fouls compared to the Jays’s eleven.

“We should take some positives away from how we played against the number one team in the country, but by no means should we be satisfied,” Bennett said, “Like I said we should take some things: take their speed of play, their athletic ability and their soccer ability. We hung in there and realistically we should have had a tie.”

The Spartans aren’t out of the woods either, following Sunday’s game they will finish up their homestand with no. 3 ranked Maryland and no. 2 ranked Notre Dame.

“When you play a good team like this you really find out where your strengths and weaknesses are,” head coach Damon Rensing said after the game, “I think this game today helps us prepare for Maryland better than any training session you can run. There are a lot of similarities with the teams.”

And although this loss was tough for the Spartans, they still sit atop of the Big Ten with a 3-2-0 record, tied with Indiana, as the Hoosiers fell to Penn State 1-0. The Spartans will host no. 3 ranked Maryland on Friday at DeMartin Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.