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After a first half of very few chances, #10/#7 Marquette took advantage of two set pieces to score goals and defeat Providence 2-0 on Saturday afternoon. The Friars (2-6-1, 0-2-0) gave the Golden Eagles (10-0-0) their first set piece when Wilder Arboleda was booked in the 59th minute for a particularly hard tackle out near midfield. Bryan Ciesiulka launched the free kick at the net, Axel Sjoberg popped it towards the post and John Pothast cleaned up the trash for what would turn into the game winner. Sjoberg wasn't satisfied with just an assist on a game winning goal, though. He added a goal of his own in the 72nd minute off a -- SPOILER ALERT -- header on a Paul Dillon corner kick.
Marquette was able to come away with a shutout win even though Providence had the shot advantage for the match by a 17-9 margin. Keeper Charlie Lyon is to be commended on his sixth shutout of the season, as he had to make a career high nine saves to keep the clean sheet.
What did Coach Bennett have to say about the match?
We've come in to Providence for the second time in two years and again beat them by two goals. That's not easy to do; I'm proud of our guys for that. I thought the two giants today were definitely Charlie Lyon and John Pothast. I thought Pothast came of age today, and Lyon was phenomenal. He made two unbelievable stops and I was impressed with his organization. What Charlie did today, he really earned the right to say that this was a shutout. If he wasn't in goal, I don't know if we would've had that. The best thing to come out of this, apart from the 2-0 win, was the fact that we can be resilient and adapt when the environment isn't conducive to how we want to play. Providence is a really difficult place to do that. At times it looked like a free-for-all and our guys kept their head and didn't give any silly fouls away.
UPDATE: We've got video of MU's goals now!
Up Next: New polls won't be out until Tuesday, but current #2/#2 Connecticut comes to the Valley on Saturday night. Might we see two top five teams square off? We'll see on Saturday. It will be GOLD OUT UCONN night, so 1) wear your gold and 2) show up early to get a gold rally towel.