Women’s Soccer: #2 Stanford 4, Marquette 0

The #2 ranked Stanford Cardinal unloaded for three second half goals in a 22 minute stretch on Friday night as they defeated Marquette, 4-0, in the 2017 season opener for both squads. Marquette drops to 0-1-0, of course, while Stanford moves to 1-0-0.

It should not shock you that the Cardinal ended up with the win, nor should it shock you that they held a heavy shots advantage in this one, outfiring Marquette 20-7 at Valley Fields. Even at halftime, Marquette was getting outshot 10-3, and with their only significant offensive chance coming when Stanford keeper Alison Jahansouz drew a yellow card for tripping Jamie Kutey in the box in the 26th minute, that was probably going to be a problem. Eli Beard’s penalty kick attempt was saved by Jahansouz, and about 10 minutes later, Stanford collected a rebound off the goalframe around MU’s Maddy Henry, controlled for a moment, and then Catarina Macario ripped a shot into the upper left 90 for what turned into the game winning goal. Henry finished with a career best nine saves in her 79 minutes of action, but she had no chance to make a play on Macario’s shot.

That was the only goal of the first 45 minutes, but the Cardinal provided themselves some insurance in the 52nd minute as Kyra Carusa snapped a shot home. That was honestly probably the final nail in the coffin, but Carusa’s second of the game followed less than two minutes later by a header goal by Mariah Lee off a corner kick pretty much cast a pallor over any true hopes of a rally.

To wit: Marquette head coach Markus Roeders lifted Henry for Sloane Carlson about five minutes after the fourth goal, and by the time the game was over, 23 different Golden Eagles had played in the game. Roeders let the bench go wild in the final 15 minutes, as there was no point in keeping his starting 11 out there any longer.

Look, there’s not a lot of positives to take from this game. MU was barely in the game in the first half and Stanford slammed the door hard in their face in the second half. Here’s the good news: Last year, out in Palo Alto, Stanford outshot Marquette 31-2 on their way to a 3-0 victory over the Golden Eagles. Tonight, the shot margin was only 20-7. If, and I realize that this is mostly just a theory at this point, but if Marquette is already ahead of the team development curve from where they were last year on September 4th, then we could be in for a fun season from Marquette.

Here’s some postgame thoughts from goalkeeper Maddy Henry and head coach Markus Roeders:

Up Next: Marquette returns to the pitch on Sunday afternoon when they play host to Kentucky. First kick is scheduled for 2:30pm Central time. The Wildcats are coming off of a 1-0 loss to Wisconsin Badgers on a late goal in Madison on Friday night. The MU/UK game will be the front end of a doubleheader at Valley Fields that features the Badgers traveling down I-94 to take on Stanford in the second game.