Marquette Men’s Soccer Preview: at #6 Creighton

It has been nearly 330 minutes since Marquette men’s soccer scored a run of play goal. Patrick Seagrist’s goal that gave Marquette a lead against Villanova was the last time MU scored on a live ball. Seagrist’s goal is the only run of play goal that Marquette has scored in more than 570 minutes, dating all the way back to Connor Alba’s strike that put Marquette up 3-0 in the Milwaukee Cup match against UWM.

570-plus minutes, one run of play goal, one penalty kick goal, nine goals conceded.

And you wonder why Marquette is on a seven match winless streak.

The Marquette Wire wrote an article this week focusing on MU’s inability to finish on corner kicks this season. That’s probably not helping their offensive case, as the Golden Eagles are 0-for-63 on corner kicks this season and haven’t tallied a goal on a corner kick since October 2015.

But it’s a bigger issue than just not converting on the 5.73 corner opportunities that they get per game on average. Marquette needs to score goals in a bad, bad way. It’s been like this for a few years now, in fact. For a brief flicker earlier this season, it seemed like MU had put that kind of performance behind them, cracking four goals in three consecutive matches. That was back when freshman Luka Prpa had back-to-back six point games. While it was unreasonable to expect that to continue, the hope was obviously that opponents focusing on limiting Prpa would provide opportunities to his teammates. Prpa has been limited, going without a point in six straight matches before recording the penalty kick equalizer against Georgetown last time out. No one else has been able to step into the void on a regular basis, though. Even Seagrist’s goal against the Wildcats had a certain amount of “shouldn’t have happened” to it as it involved Seagrist, MU’s starting left back, darting up the sideline and to the top of the 18 yard box in order to make it happen.

Big East Match #5 : at #6 Creighton (7-2-3, 3-0-1 Big East)

When: Saturday, October 15, 2016, at 7pm CT
Where: Morrison Stadium in Omaha, NE
Audio/Visual: The Big East Digital Network on Fox Sports Go has the video stream & there’s live stats.
Twitter Updates: @marquettesoccer & @CreightonMSoc

Marquette is 6-5-0 all time against Creighton. However, the Bluejays have narrowed that margin since joining the Big East with wins in two of the three contests.

Well, bad news, sports fans: Creighton’s probably pissed off. Fresh off earning a #6 ranking in the newest NSCAA top 25, their highest ranking of the season, the Bluejays promptly went to Tulsa on Tuesday night and lost, 2-1, to the Golden Hurricane. It wasn’t just any kind of a loss, either. CU allowed two goals less than three minutes apart in the final five minutes of the match in order to taste defeat for just the second time this season.

I guess, luckily for Creighton, it was a non-conference loss, and they maintained their spot atop the table in the Big East. Because they drew with St. John’s, they have 10 points through four matches, giving them a one point advantage over both Butler and Xavier who are at 3-1-0.

Two senior transfers are providing the basis for another great season for the Bluejays. Riggs Lennon scored just seven goals in three seasons playing for Virginia, but he already has nine goals this season for Creighton. That’s the best on the team and the second best in the Big East, trailing only Butler’s David Goldsmith. CU’s other transfer is holding it down on the other end of the field, as Alex Kapp has played every minute in net for the Jays. He’s allowed only seven goals this season for a goals-against average of 0.55, which is the best team GAA in the Big East. His save percentage of .873 is also the best in the conference.