Creighton neutralized the advantages Eastern had in the first round against Missouri State and ended the Panthers season in the second round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

Against the Bears, sophomore striker Brad Peters was able to get free and scored twice in a 3-1 victory.

But Friday night against Creighton, 6-foot-4 freshman defender Chris Schuler shadowed the MVC scoring leader and the Bluejays beat the Panthers 2-0.

“They did a better job defensively, they’re a very athletic team,” said head coach Adam Howarth. “They just did a good job all over.”

Eastern was faster to the ball than Missouri State on Wednesday night, but No. 21 Creighton played tough and beat Eastern to numerous passes and countless headers.

“We played OK, probably in most games we would have earned a draw, but not today,” Howarth said after the game. “We had chances, but we just didn’t get that extra ball quick enough, we weren’t switching the ball quick enough, the things that you need to do against this team.”

Creighton struck early in the game when MVC Player of the Year, Michael Kraus, put his head on the ball and redirected a corner kick for his seventh goal of the season in the 7th minute of the game.

“I barely felt the ball hit my head,” Kraus said. “I wasn’t sure I put enough on it to score.”

Kraus assisted on the second goal of the game in the 74th minute when he rifled a crossing pass from the endline to a wide-open Jarod Tarver in front of the net for the senior forward’s third goal of the season.

Freshman defender Chris Pearson thought playing such an intense game Wednesday might have tired out the Panthers even before they stepped onto the field Friday night.

Howarth reiterated that point.

“We didn’t have that extra oomph you need sometimes,” Howarth said. “You never want to make an excuse but (Creighton) had that bye, which was good for them. We just didn’t have the legs, I don’t know, it’s hard to say, but I felt we didn’t push ourselves to the limit at times.”

Sophomore midfielder Adam Gartner was injured in the game and Howarth said he probably has a broken nose after he took an elbow in the face.

Junior captain Mick Galeski also went down during the game, but did not come off the field and appeared to be OK after the game.

Creighton beat Eastern to advance to the MVC tournament championship against Bradley, which beat Drake in the semi-finals.

The Braves struck first in the final, but Creighton battled back to win 2-1 in overtime to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Sophomore forward Byron Dacy scored with 4.4 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game and then Schuler, who stuck to Peters on Friday, scored the golden goal for the Bluejays in the first overtime.

Dacy earned tournament MVP honors for his game-tying goal and Creighton improved to 24-5-1 all-time in 14 tournament appearances with its ninth postseason title.