• Live Video Streaming (Courtesy of Aces All-Access)
One of the region's most popular soccer match-ups takes place Tuesday evening when the University of Evansville men's team hosts the University of Southern Indiana in the Mayor's Cup at UE's Black Beauty Field. Kickoff for the exhibition match is at 7:00 CDT.
This is the fifth friendly between the Purple Aces and Screaming Eagles in the past six seasons, and the ninth all-time. The two schools played a four-game exhibition series in the ‘80s, with the Aces winning three of four, and then played each year from 2003 through 2006. Evansville has won all four this decade in the Mayor’s Cup series, although the last two have been one-goal matches, with UE coming out on top 2-1. Each of the four recent matches has drawn more than 1,000 fans.
Four high schools are alma maters for both UE and USI players. Here’s the list:
Evansville Memorial: USI’s Kyle Leffel, and UE’s Mitch Day and Kyle Kessler.
Evansville Harrison: USI’s Mike Bendzen and Austin Schall (a former UE player), and UE’s Ben Dempsey and Ryan Moll.
Carmel: USI’s Brad Cadden and UE’s Robby Lynch.
Avon: USI’s Justin Fox and UE’s Mike Luttrull.
Goalkeeper Alec Dufty and defender Kipp Erskine are Evansville’s only seniors, but the Aces are confident that a third straight winning season is possible despite a schedule that includes three of the last four NCAA Division I champions–Indiana (2003, 2004), Maryland (2005) and UC-Santa Barbara (2006). The Aces finished sixth nationally in scoring last season, won 10 matches for the first time since 1999, and reached the MVC Tournament semifinals for the first time since 1999.
USI goes into 2008 hoping to end a stretch of four straight losing seasons. Veterans Michael Simcock, Paul Hutchens, Tyree Robinson and Dan Dormeier combined for 11 goals and 13 assists last season, and goalkeepers Brad Cadden and Andrew Haley will compete to replace 2008 graduate Andrew Hults.
Tuesday's match is the second of three exhibition matches for UE. The Aces host Bellarmine University Sunday before starting the regular season August 29 against Detroit at the University of Kentucky Classic.
