Shawn Barry couldn’t contain himself.

The speedy Virginia soccer star knocked in a header Saturday night and then decided to celebrate. In his teal cleats, Barry busted into a front handspring followed by a back flip in front of the Creighton bench.

Oh, silly Shawn. You got Creighton a little hot.

Sophomore Ethan Finlay and the Bluejays responded with two second-half goals for a 2-1 exhibition win over the defending national champion Cavaliers before 2,348 at Morrison Stadium. The match was the fourth of the day at Kicks for a Cure, an event that raised $172,000 this year and $728,000 the past five for local cancer research.

“We knew it would be a battle,” Finlay said. “They have some fast, fancy players. We wanted to prove a point that we can play soccer here in the Midwest, and in the second half we did.”

Finlay started the rally at 59:11 after outhustling goalkeeper Diego Restrepo to the ball in the box and slipping past him to the right for the goal. Finlay’s second score came with 69:22 remaining. More than a pleasing sight for coach Bob Warming.

The coach has been stressing all spring about the importance of a consistent offense, something that cost the Bluejays a trip to the NCAA tournament in the fall. He has been talking about being a “two-goal team” since he said the Bluejays have won 96 percent of their matches dating to 1990 when they have tallied at least two scores.

Warming also credited his team’s desire this spring to not let the 2009 disappointment repeat.

“It speaks well to the commitment these guys have made to their physical conditioning,” he said. “They’ve been working out six days a week since January.”

Also uplifting, the Bluejays’ toughness. They proved Saturday night they can beat what Warming called one of the best teams of all-time. Virginia didn’t allow a goal in its final 11 matches of 2009 en route to the national title.

The match was brutal, too, with Virginia getting called for at least five yellow cards, some knocks resembling that of a UFC event.

No sweat, Finlay said.

“We’re a young team, but we have good experience playing in a big-time atmosphere,” he said. “These types of wins are really going to help us going forward.”

Contact the writer:

444-1201, sports@owh.com

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