Marquette Men’s Soccer Preview: at Seton Hall

0-1-1 after two matches. Not a great start to league play for Marquette, especially with matches against Creighton and Butler, two top 10 teams looming in the future. Odds were that things probably weren’t going to go well for MU against the Jays and the Bulldogs, which is why getting results against teams like St. John’s and Villanova were going to be important for Marquette.

The scoreless draw with the Johnnies is what it is. Over the course of the last four matches, the two teams have combined for two goals, both from Marquette in 2014. We appear to be locked in some sort of horrible loop with the Red Storm where neither team will be able to score. Fine. The Villanova loss was kind of atrocious, as MU was five minutes away from a tie at the end of regulation when they gave up a needlessly silly foul along the sidelines and allowed the Wildcats to mirror image their first goal of the match.

Is “kind of atrocious” too mean? I really don’t think so. Marquette outshot Villanova 20-7 in the match. It’s not unrealistic to expect a team to win, or at the very least draw, when you see a 13 shot margin in their favor.

So, onwards to South Orange, searching for the first win of the league schedule. I presume we’ll see Luis Barraza in net here. Barraza alternated with redshirt senior Mac Wheeler through the non-conference slate, but it’s been Barraza for both of the conference games. Head coach Louis Bennett has stated that we will see Wheeler again this season, so it is possible that this could be an opportunity for him.

Big East Match #3: at Seton Hall (2-6-1, 0-2-0 Big East)

When: Saturday, October 1, 2016, at 6pm CT
Where: Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, NJ
Audio/Visual: SHUPirates.com has a free video stream, plus there’s live stats.
Twitter Updates: @marquettesoccer & @SHUMSOC

Marquette has a 5-3-3 record all time against Seton Hall. The Pirates won the first three meetings, but MU is undefeated in the last eight.

Seton Hall has lost 11 straight Big East matches. They were 0-9-0 in 2015 as a part of a season which did not result in any victories at all for the Pirates, and they’ve started out 2016 with losses to Creighton and St. John’s. That’s... not great, and all it really does is add anxiety to my sense of where the Marquette season is going.

Overall, the 2016 season has taken a bit of a downturn for SHU. That 2-6-1 record doesn’t look good, but they got there courtesy of a four match losing streak capped off by those two league losses. In fact, Seton Hall isn’t just winless in their last four, they’re also goalless in their last two. Tack on the fact that they scored in the 10th minute against Creighton, and it’s been over 260 minutes since the Pirates have scored a goal.

In order to keep that streak going, Marquette is going to have to focus on Andres Arcila. The sophomore from Cartegena, Colombia, has five goals on the season which, even with the current team drought, is still tied for the fourth most in the league right now. SHU has six assists on 10 goals this season, with Arcila and freshman Jonathan Jimenez both registering two each.

Julian Spindler is the keeper for Seton Hall, even though Peyton Elder took a turn in net against Delaware earlier this year. Spindler is allowing 1.67 goals per 90 minutes and stopping 68% of shots on goal.