The Bulldogs continue BIG EAST play Saturday, traveling to Providence for their first conference road match of the season. Saturday's match will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network, part of the FOX Sports Go app.
 
The match is set to start at 7 p.m. Providence is 2-4-1 on the season, which includes a 0-0 draw with DePaul to open the BIG EAST slate. That record is slightly deceiving for the Friars, which advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals a season ago. PC opened the season against North Carolina and Wake Forest, both ranked in the Top 10 nationally. The Bulldogs continue a tough road to open BIG EAST play as Providence and Creighton were the only teams picked ahead of Butler in the preseason poll as voted on by the league's head coaches.
 
Butler enters the match with a 5-2 record, including a come-from-behind win over Creighton in Saturday's BIG EAST opener. Butler is ranked No. 22 in the College Soccer News national poll this week, while also receiving votes just outside the Top 25 in the United Soccer Coaches poll.
 
The Bulldogs trailed 2-0 in the match with Creighton before two goals from Brandon Guhl in the final 15 minutes of regulation tied the contest. Less than three minutes into overtime, sophomore Alex Lehtinen headed in the game-winner off a Lewis Suddick corner kick. It was the first goal of Lehtinen's Butler career.
 
With the two goals against Creighton (in addition to an assist on Joel Harvey's game-winner earlier in the week in the 1-0 win over Evansville), Guhl was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and earned spots on the national teams of the week for College Soccer News and Top Drawer Soccer. Guhl joins Jared Timmer (Aug. 28) and Suddick (Sept. 4) as Butler has been selected for the conference's offensive weekly award in three of the four weeks so far this season. Keeper Eric Dick has also earned weekly goalkeeper honors once (Aug. 28).
 
Guhl has six goals in Butler's seven matches this season. His six goals and 14 points both lead the BIG EAST, while those marks are fifth and seventh nationally, respectively. These are the first six collegiate goals for the sophomore transfer from SMU. His six goals have come on only 10 shots.
 
The Bulldogs have kept fans on the edge of their seat through the early part of the season as all seven results have been of the one-goal variety, including a 3-0 mark in overtime contests. Butler's five wins have each featured a different Bulldog with the game-winner (Lehtinen, Harvey, Suddick, Timmer, and Kieran Geldenhuys). Butler's 13 goals on the season include six from Guhl, five game-winners from those other Bulldogs, as well as a goal from Isaac Galliford and a second goal from Suddick.
 
Despite missing two matches, Suddick's four assists are tied for second in the BIG EAST. Butler is 4-1 in Suddick's five matches. In those four wins, Suddick has scored one game-winner and assisted on the game-winner in the other three matches.
 
Senior keeper Dick made four saves in the 1-0 win over Evansville Sept. 12, including two diving stops in the 90^th minute to preserve the clean sheet. It was the second solo shutout of the season and 21^st of Dick's career. Dick missed the loss to Western Michigan in the previous game due to illness. Dick has 25 saves on the season for a .781 save percentage, while allowing 1.15 goals per game.

Saturday's win over Creighton was a rematch of the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship game that Butler won, 2-1, in Indianapolis. The BIG EAST title game win gave the Bulldogs an automatic berth in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, its first appearance since 2010. Butler has advanced to the NCAA Tournament on seven occasions (also 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2009, and 2010). Five of the first six came by earning the automatic berth that came from winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League Tournament.
 
In addition to Harvey's first career goal in the Evansville match Sept. 12, several other youngsters have been called upon early in the season. Redshirt sophomore Braden Van Allen got the first start of his Butler career against Evansville. The Evansville native began his career at VCU. Redshirt freshman Nathan Edmunds made his first Butler start in the match against Western Michigan Sept. 8, while Usman Gil Ivern and Maurice Thompson III played the first minutes of their Butler career against the Broncos. Gil Ivern also played against Evansville.
 
Coach Paul Snape has gone deeper onto his bench in recent matches after All-League player Timmer was lost for the season to a leg injury in the team's second match of the season (Aug. 28 at Louisville). Midfielder Marco Charalambous, a starter in 2016, was lost for the season due to a knee injury sustained over the summer. Dick (one match) and Suddick (two matches) have missed time, while sophomore starter Derek Sutton has not played since the San Francisco match Sept. 3. He is expected to return in the coming weeks.   
 
Galliford, Geldenhuys, Eric Leonard, Bennett Kim, and Joe Moulden have started all seven matches for the Bulldogs. Moulden is the only Bulldog to play all 640 minutes so far this season. Both Leonard and Geldenhuys have played all but five mintues.
 
Suddick, Guhl, and Leonard were named to the All-Tournament Team at the Adidas/IU Credit Forum Classic hosted by Indiana University over Labor Day Weekend. Butler posted a pair of 3-2 wins in Bloomington, defeating South Florida and San Francisco. South Florida was Butler's third consecutive opponent to open the season that made the 2016 NCAA Tournament field.

Leonard, Dick and Timmer are the team's captains for the 2017 campaign.

Entering the contest with Providence, Snape has a record of 57-42-20. The Butler coaching staff, led by Snape, was named the NSCAA (now referred to as United Soccer Coaches) Great Lakes Region Staff of the Year for Division I institutions in 2016. This honor is a result of a vote by other coaches in the region.
 
Butler has a full week off following the Providence contest before hosting St. John's for a Sept. 30 match-up at the Sellick Bowl.