Sean Sheridan bounced back from ringing a penalty kick off the post in the 59th minute to score the game winner in the 78th minute as Villanova defeated Marquette, 2-1, on Saturday afternoon.
You can argue whether it was the defense or the offense that failed the Golden Eagles against the Wildcats. Redshirt senior C. Nortey scored his second goal in as many matches to give MU a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute. That lead wouldn't even last until halftime, as Lucas Hodges headed home a Sheridan corner kick with less than 40 seconds left in the first half.
After the break, the Wildcats had control of the match, taking the first five shots of the second half, which was capped off by Sheridan's missed penalty kick. Even though Marquette broke the run of shots by VU, it didn't mean that their offense was turning anything into something dangerous. The Golden Eagles would take just two shots in the second half before Sheridan gave Villanova the lead on a feed from Andreas Bartosinski.
Things turned around for Marquette after that, though, as Villanova tried to wait out the final 12 minutes. Marquette rapped off six of their 15 shots in the game after VU had taken the lead. Only two had real chances of going in, though. One was an Alex McBride shot that was stopped by Steiner with less than five minutes left, while the other came off the foot of Toby Howell with just 12 seconds left and connected with the crossbar and deflected away, thus ending Marquette's chances at even a point for a draw.
Marquette falls to 3-4-2 on the season overall and 0-1-1 in Big East matches this season.
Up Next: The Golden Eagles head out to Madison on Wednesday to take on Wisconsin. The Badgers are 2-7-1 on the season, with the draw coming in their most recent match, a road trip to Michigan. That makes them winless in their last four, just like Marquette.