For the second straight year, Marquette men’s soccer allowed a penalty kick goal to snatch a win away from them against Saint Louis. Last year, the goal came in the 87th minute to end up forcing a draw. This year, it was Lennart Hein capitalizing in the 72nd minute that gave the Billikens a 1-0 win at Valley Fields. With the loss, Marquette drops to 0-3-1 on the season. The goal gave SLU their first win of the year after dropping their first three matches to ranked foes.
It’s becoming a little bit of a familiar refrain this season already to say that Marquette might have deserved to win this match, based on the associated stats. The Golden Eagles finished with a 15-10 advantage in shots, including an 11-3 margin in the second half. SLU’s Sascha Otte had to make seven saves in the match to keep MU off the board, including five in the second half. Those five saves don’t include the two Marquette shots that hit the crossbar after intermission. Saint Louis’ chances were far and few between after the break, but they only needed the one scramble inside the box to cause enough contact between MU keeper Luis Barraza and an SLU attacker for the referee to blow his whistle and give the foul for the penalty kick. According to the Marquette Wire reporter manning the tweets last night, Barraza had grabbed the leg of the Billikens’ player, which seems like a pretty obvious call for the referee.
There was both positive and negative roster news stemming from Saturday night’s contest. Jason Davis, the graduate transfer from England, made his Marquette debut, which is of course the positive news. Davis came off the bench and played 65 minutes for the Golden Eagles, recording two shots along the way. The negative news came in the 74th minute, as Martin Alba had to be carried off the field due to injury. The redshirt junior has suffered through a number of injuries in his collegiate career that have limited his playing time. Marquette has enough problems already this season as can be evidenced by their three goals in four matches, and replacing the stalwart Alba long term is not going to help that. Head coach Louis Bennett is already attempting to assemble a team out of parts that are unfamiliar with each other, and removing a veteran presence like Alba is just going to throw a wrench into those plans.
Here’s the GoMarquette.com highlight package, courtesy of Spectrum Sports, who had the TV broadcast last night:
Up Next: Well, things don’t get easier, that’s for sure. The Golden Eagles will be in Charlottesville on Tuesday night for a road contest with #11 Virginia. The Cavaliers are 3-0-1 on the season after a draw with Syracuse on Friday night. I don’t know what it means for Marquette, but Virginia has gone to overtime in three of their four matches this season.