Marquette Men’s Soccer Earns A Draw With Georgetown

Luka Prpa provided a penalty kick equalizer in the 67th minute as Marquette and Georgetown went to a 1-1 draw in men’s soccer on Saturday afternoon. Marquette moves to 3-4-4 on the season and 0-2-2 in Big East play with the tie. This did snap a three match losing streak for the Golden Eagles, but they have now gone seven straight matches without a victory.

Georgetown got on the board first with a goal by P.J. Koscher in the 14th minute. The Hoyas started out the match using short corners and attacking from there, and it caused enough dysfunction early, allowing Arun Basuljevic to poke it to Koscher for the strike past keeper Luis Barraza.

The goal gave the Hoyas a lead at intermission, even though the shots were tied at three a piece. They kept the lead past the hour mark in the match, but Marquette was showing promise and intent as they pushed forward to level the match. In the 67th minute, the Golden Eagles were mounting a quality attack when Luka Prpa pushed a pass to the left flank of the 18 yard box for Daniel Szczepanek to play. Danski’s first touch created some space for him to work, or rather, it would have if he hadn’t been grabbed and tripped to the ground inside the 18 yard box. Quite fairly, the referee blew his whistle and signalled for a penalty kick, which was expertly rifled home by Prpa for the equalizer.

It was Prpa’s sixth goal of the year, but just his first in the last seven matches. Not to pin all of MU’s hopes and dreams to the jersey of a freshman midfielder, but it’s probably not a coincidence that Prpa’s scoring drought has been going right alongside with Marquette’s inability to end a match with a victory.

While Marquette got the match level, they still needed an outstanding effort from Barraza to keep it there. The sophomore made three second half saves, including one almost immediately after the restart from Prpa’s goal. Barraza also made three saves just in the 10 minutes of the second overtime period to prevent the Hoyas from getting a golden goal, including one crucial one as Marquette gave up a transition chance to the Hoyas as the period came to a close.

Through four matches of Big East action, Marquette has just two points from two draws. Yes, that has them in last place right now. However, St. John’s currently holds the sixth and final Big East tournament spot with just five points. It might be hard for Marquette to get there (Creighton and Butler loom on the schedule), but the chances for the Golden Eagles are there.

Senior center back John Pothast was involved in a collision in the very last seconds of the first half. He went down to the turf slowly while holding his head. Marquette training staff tended to him for a while during halftime, and while he walked off under his own power eventually, he did not return in the second half.

How about a full set of highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and the Big East Digital Network?

Up Next: Marquette is off until next Saturday when they make the trip down to Omaha to face Creighton. The Bluejays (7-1-3, 3-0-1 Big East) are ranked #10 in the country in the most recent NSCAA poll, but they’re almost assuredly going to move up in the next one after beating #9 Butler to take over first place in the Big East on Friday.