Marquette Men's Soccer Preview: vs Drake

Don't look now, but Charlie Lyon hasn't allowed a goal in over 238 minutes.  The redshirt senior picked up two shutouts last weekend, giving him 22 for his career and six behind Jim Welch for Marquette's all time record.  What makes this slightly more impressive than it appears on the surface is that Marquette has been playing shorthanded lately.  Luis Trude and Martin Alba have yet to make their debut in a Golden Eagles kit, which has thinned things out in the midfield.  Sebastian Jansson left last Friday's game against Gonzaga with an injury and didn't play against Oregon State, and the usually stalwart Brady Wahl was a late scratch against the Beavers due to illness.

Even with all of this, the Golden Eagles are now 2-2-0 on the season and appear to be rolling along.  The 0-2-0 start to the season wasn't a complete letdown given the quality of competition, so to bounce back with two shutout wins was an excellent recovery.

Match #5: vs Drake (1-2-1)

When: Saturday, September 13, 2014, at 7pm
Where: Valley Fields
Audio/Visual: Because Marquette loves you, there's FREE streaming video, plus live stats.
Special Promotions: Do you have a ticket from volleyball on Friday? Bring it to the Valley and GET IN FOR FREE!  Groups of 4 students get FREE PIZZA at halftime.  Quite the deal, really.
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer

Drake has taken an interesting idea for their non-conference slate: Invite the Horizon League over to play.  Ok, yes, there was that home match against Houston Baptist.  But their other three matches, all home games, have been against HL teams: UW-Milwaukee (2-0 loss), UW-Green Bay (3-1 win), and Illinois-Chicago (a 2OT 1-0 loss).  On the surface, that might not look all that encouraging, especially with a 2-2 draw with Houston Baptist.  But UIC is actually ranked, believe it or not.  Drake was badly outshot in that game, 17-9, but only four shots found their way on frame, including the golden goal.

Two Bulldogs were named to the All-Missouri Valley preseason team.  Redshirt junior defender Alec Bartlett has started all 39 games he's seen at Drake after sitting out a year at Creighton before transferring. Redshirt sophomore Darrin MacLeod was named the best goalkeeper in the MVC, as he's the only goalkeeper on the preseason team.  MacLeod has unsurprisingly played every minute for Drake so far this season, compiling a goals-against average of 1.37 and stopping 70% of shots on goal.  Sophomore midfielder James Wypych has two goals on the still young season to lead the Bulldogs' scoring efforts.