Marquette Allows The Panthers To Keep The Milwaukee Cup

Josh Coan gave Marquette men’s soccer a first half lead in the 47th edition of the Milwaukee Cup on Tuesday night, but Milwaukee scored two of their own in the second half. That gave the Panthers a 2-1 win and let them keep the traveling trophy and extend MU’s winless streak at Engelmann Stadium

Let’s start with Coan’s scoring opener, which came in the 25th minute, and looked a little bit..... like this.

That’s both an excellent flick forward by Leo Villa and an excellent bit of individual play by Coan to collect the pass, turn himself around into some free space, and then crack it into the far wall for the 1-0 lead.

While MU had the 1-0 advantage at the intermission, there were warning signs of what was to come from the Panthers. After all, UWM outshot MU 7-4 in the first half. That kind of offensive advantage reared its head quickly in the second half, as Jake Kelderman headed home a corner kick for the equalizer in the 50th minute.

That was, essentially, the start of a 9-3 shooting advantage for UWM in the second half. Things did stay tied for a while, but then Josh Kidder and his set piece aim reared his head again. After getting the assist on Kelderman’s goal, Kidder got his second helper of the game in the 76th minute when Vuk Latinovich headed in a free kick for the 2-1 lead and what was ultimately the game winner.

Luka Prpa made his return to the field for Marquette here for 23 minutes of action. He was one of just three subs for head coach Louis Bennett in the match, as five of the 10 starting field players went the full 90 minutes and Lukas Sunesson saw 89 minutes. Prpa is recovering from surgery for a fractured metatarsal back in the spring. It’s entirely possible that spot duty is what we’ll see all year long from Prpa, as that kind of broken bone in your foot can do one heck of a job on your overall fitness for a full season of college soccer.

Up Next: Marquette kicks off Big East play this Friday night, even with three non-conference matches left to come. Creighton comes to Valley Fields with a record of 3-2-1 on the year after beating Nebraska-Omaha on Monday night.