Marquette Men’s Soccer Falls To Creighton In Double Overtime

Three streaks ended on Saturday afternoon at Valley Fields.

In chronological order......

STREAK #1: Marquette Golden Eagles men’s soccer allowed a goal for the first time all season. Creighton’s Charles Auguste found the back of the net in the 51st minute thanks to some action off of a corner kick. The Golden Eagles had gone 357:43 into this season before allowing a goal at all, the longest streak to open a season in program history.

STREAK #2: Marquette scored a goal in regulation for the first time all season. The Golden Eagles won their first three matches of the season on golden goals in overtime, and since every match went to overtime scoreless, Lukas Sunesson’s redirect of a Christian Marquez cross in the 65th minute is the first goal of the year before the end of the 90th minute for Marquette.

STREAK #3: Marquette is no longer undefeated on the season after starting the year off with three straight victories. Like the first three matches of the year, this one also went to overtime knotted up at one goal each. The first three of the year for Marquette ended on golden goals in the first overtime, but on Saturday, the first 10 minute period ended without a goal for either side. That changed in the 105th minute when Jake Ronneberg poked in a cross off a quick short corner kick, catching MU keeper Chandler Hallwood defending on the near side and leaving the net wide open for Ronneberg on the far post.

Marquette drops to 3-1-0 on the season, but unfortunately, they are now 0-1-0 in Big East play after the first of eight league matches this season. The Bluejays were picked to finish second in the Big East this season, while MU was picked to finish fourth, so the result isn’t surprising, even though it seems, goals-wise, Marquette had a chance to pick up the three points or at least split a pair with the Jays.

With that said, Marquette appears to be a bit on the lucky side to have gotten it to overtime in the first place. Creighton outshot MU 16-6 in regulation, and Hallwood had to make all seven of his saves in the match in the first 90 minutes of action just to keep things level at one each. The Golden Eagles had done a good job of keeping the shots even in the last two matches, but they have yet to have a game this season where they’ve clearly been the better side for 90 minutes of soccer.

Up Next: The run of Saturday matches continues, so MU will be off til next weekend. Western Illinois comes to the seasonal bubble at Valley Fields on February 27th for a 4pm Central time first kick. The Leathernecks are 0-2-1 on the season with all three matches coming in Summit League action. They drew 1-1 at home against Eastern Illinois and then took two losses two days apart, 2-0 and 2-1, on the road against Denver this week.

Actually, now that I look at WIU’s schedule, I’m not 100% sure this match is happening, as it’s not on the page. It’s still on MU’s schedule, though, and the official MU recap noted it as the next game.