Marquette Men’s Soccer Collars The Huskies

After a whirlwind opening 35 minutes that gave us four — count ‘em, FOUR — goals, Marquette men’s soccer played an elaborate game of keep-away for the remaining 55 minutes and scored a 3-1 win over Northern Illinois on Friday night. The Golden Eagles are now 2-1-1 on the season.

Josh Coan was the star of the day, scoring two of MU’s goals and assisting on the third. NIU took advantage of some tumult and confusion in front of the net to catch MU keeper Jackson Weyman halfway between a challenge and minding his line in the 10th minute to open the festivities. That was on the Huskies’ first shot of the match.... and they would only get eight more.

Coan got the Golden Eagles level in the 23rd minute. With MU earning a free kick not too far outside the box, Coan one-hopped the ball into the near corner of the net, sending it in easily for the goal.

Connor Alba’s gamewinner in the 31st minute was a very traditional type of goal. Patrick Seagrist got free into the left corner thanks to a pass from Coan, and knocked a very low and very fast cross into the middle. Alba was Johnny-on-the-spot, kind of literally, right about at the penalty kick marker on the field, and clipped home Seagrist’s pass for the 2-1 lead.

Free kicks were the order of the day for Josh Coan, as his second goal of the game came on one as well in the 32nd minute. Officially, this is his goal, although I wasn’t 100% sure it got through completely cleanly when watching it live in person. The replay makes it look like it did, although it also looks like Lukas Sunesson’s run to where Coan’s ball game through froze NIU keeper Konrad Dziedzic long enough for the ball to sail past him into the far wall. Officially unassisted, but definitely unofficially assisted, if that makes sense.

And there you have it, less than 12 minutes after NIU opened the scoring, Marquette was standing around high-fiving with a two goal lead. Weyman would make one save after that in the first half, and then three more after the intermission to maintain the scoring margin. The Golden Eagles ended up outshooting NIU 9-5 in the second half for an 18-9 shot advantage overall at the end of the match. The best defense is a good offense sometimes, and MU’s continued pressure into the offensive third was their biggest weapon to prevent a comeback.

Here’s a full highlight package, courtesy of GoMarquette.com:

Up Next: Would you believe it’s Milwaukee Cup time? The Golden Eagles will head across town to face UW-Milwaukee on Tuesday night for the 47th installment of the Milwaukee Cup derby. The Panthers have held the Cup since beating Marquette 2-0 in 2017 and earned a 2-1 win over MU in 2018 as well.