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On Wednesday, it took Marquette men’s soccer 93 minutes before they found the back of the net. That’s still a win, so that’s good.
On Sunday afternoon, the Golden Eagles decided to ratchet up the intensity a little bit.
It took until the 95th minute of the match was almost completed before Lukas Sunesson knocked in a cross from Alex Mirsberger to put Marquette on the board against Northern Illinois Huskies. As you can tell from the overtime minute total, that means it was 0-0 after regulation, giving Sunesson the lone goal in a 1-0 victory for the Golden Eagles. That makes Marquette 2-0-0 on the season and they have yet to concede a goal.
95' | 1-0 | GOAL! Sunesson puts in a cross from Mirsberger to secure the victory for Marquette! pic.twitter.com/81YRzgw5PF
— Marquette Soccer (@marquettesoccer) February 7, 2021
The big story of regulation wasn’t who was getting more shots, it was about quality of chances. NIU outshot Marquette 8-6 in the first 45 minutes, but MU forced Huskies keeper Martin Sanchez into making four saves on their six shots to keep them off the board. Northern Illinois had just one shot on frame in the scoreless first half, but they turned it around in the second half. Marquette outshot Northern Illinois 8-5 after halftime, but it was NIU with more shots on goal, outdoing MU 3-2 in that department.
At the end of the day, Marquette ended up outshooting Northern Illinois 15-14 in the match, and that’s the good news. Loyola Chicago badly outshot Marquette in the season opener, and MU merely tilting the match to even in that department is a sign of things coming together for Marquette.
A number of guys made their season debut in this game. Manuel Cukaj was in the starting 11 and played 90 of 95 minutes here, while Cedrik Stern subbed in for Chandler Hallwood for a little bit more than the final 30 minutes of action, including OT. Cristian Gennaro made his Marquette debut in the starting lineup, while Zyan Andrade subbed in and played over an hour for his first minutes in a Marquette uniform.
Up Next: Marquette will be off until the weekend. When Saturday rolls around, MU will be playing host to Saint Louis at Valley Fields, but the time is still listed as TBA on GoMarquette.com. I’d guess it’ll be an afternoon start in some fashion, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The Billikens are 2-0 on the season, although just 1-0 against Division 1 opponents.