Marquette Men’s Soccer Preview: vs Saint Louis Billikens

I am going to need Marquette men’s soccer to do me a favor here.

Guys. Listen up.

I think it is very neat that you are 2-0-0. It’s the second 2-0-0 start in the past three seasons, and y’all haven’t had one of those before that since 2012. Good job all around, high fives for everyone, thank you for all of your hard work.

But.

You have got to start scoring goals in regulation. My heart can not take these 90 minutes of 0-0 soccer followed with a few thrilling minutes of sudden victory overtime before you finally win. I’m very happy that Beto Soto and Lukas Sunesson scored those goals in overtime. It was very exciting.

I can not do this every match this season.

I know this spring has been weird, and there’s a lot of new guys, and coach Bennett is still figuring out who goes where and who fits together best. That’s fine! Keep working hard towards that goal.

Also please score many regulation goals as soon as possible. I think it is fun to watch you guys celebrate goals, and so I think everyone would have more fun if you scored more goals.

Thank you for your time.

Match #3: vs Saint Louis Billikens (2-0-0)

Date: Saturday, February 13, 2021
Time: 4pm Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: GoMarquette.com
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer

Marquette is, and I am not joking here, 3-23-2 all time against Saint Louis. MU is 0-4-2 in the last six meetings, but to be clear, only four of those have happened since Marquette joined the Big East including a 6-2 victory by SLU in Milwaukee in 2019. That match was so bad that I didn’t even recap it here on the site. Marquette’s last win over Saint Louis was at home on September 7, 2002.

SLU is 2-0-0 on the year and that makes sense. The Billikens have been picked to win the Atlantic 10 in this spring season. It was a close vote, with Saint Louis garnering 145 points to 143 gained by both VCU and Dayton. SLU went 6-2 in the A10 back in 2019 and return a second team all-Conference honoree from that squad in sophomore midfielder Kipp Keller.

Redshirt junior Chase Niece jumped to the forefront of the stat sheet in their 2-1 win over non-D1 McKendree in SLU’s most recent contest. Niece played all but 11 minutes in the Saint Louis back line in 2019, but went without scoring a goal. He snagged two against McKendree: One at the last second before halftime to draw the match level at 1, and another in the 65th minute to give the Billikens the win. Given that he now has three career goals, I’m going to guess that SLU isn’t running their offense to generate chances for him.

Patrick Weah, Mason Leeth, and Stefan Stojanovic all scored a goal in Saint Louis’ opener against Kansas City. Weah and Leeth are both freshmen, so we’ll see if that was beginner’s luck or what. They are the three team leaders in shots so far this season, though, so that seems like the names to know. John Klein is tied with Stojanovic for third on the shots list right now came into the season as the active scoring leader on the roster with 11 goals and three assists in two seasons.

Sophomore Patrick Schulte has played every minute in net so far. He has only made one save, which came against Kansas City. The Billikens have only allowed six total shots on the season — not on goal, total shots — so Schulte has most definitely not been tested yet.