Marquette Men’s Soccer Preview: at DePaul

THE GOOD NEWS: Marquette men’s soccer has scored a goal in regulation!

Lukas Sunesson has MU’s lone goal in the first 90 minutes of a game this season, scoring in the 65th minute of Marquette’s most recent match.

THE MEDIUM NEWS: Marquette has gone to overtime in every single match that they have played this year.

The Golden Eagles kicked off Big East play the last time they were in action, back on February 20th, as last weekend’s home date with Western Illinois was “postponed” when apparently the two sides couldn’t agree on COVID protocols for a match that was announced more than a month earlier. Right. Anyway, that Big East opener against Creighton went to overtime, just like MU’s three non-conference contests did.

THE BAD NEWS: Marquette is no longer undefeated on the year, nor are they still holding teams without a goal.

Creighton broke both of those barriers last time out, going up 1-0 to snap the streak without allowing a goal, and then scoring in the second overtime period to hand MU a loss and drop them to 3-1-0 on the season, but 0-1-0 in the Big East.

We return to Big East play again on Saturday afternoon, and this time, Marquette will be on the road for the first time this season. That will be a new and different playing experience for the Golden Eagles, as Louis Bennett’s squad has played all of their first four games in the (relative) comfort of the seasonal bubble at Valley Fields. Saturday’s game is a big opportunity for the Golden Eagles to pick up points in the Big East Midwest Division race as well. Sure, it’s early, with just one game of eight played so far, but there’s no guarantee that all eight will be played. MU has to take advantage of chances to put points on the board. They let one slip through their fingers (or is it through their legs, since this is soccer?) against Creighton, and they can’t let that happen again.

Big East Match #2: at DePaul Blue Demons (0-1-2, 0-1-0 Big East)

Date: Saturday, March 6, 2021
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Wish Field, Chicago, Illinois
Streaming: DePaulBlueDemons.com
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer

Marquette is 27-6-1 all time against DePaul. Even better than that, MU won on their last trip to Chicago in the 2019 regular season finale, and that was MU’s first win in Chicago since 2002. MU has now won two straight matches against the Blue Demons with both coming by shutout. In fact, in the current 5-3-0 run that the Golden Eagles are on against the Blue Demons, Marquette wins when they shut out the Blue Demons and lose when they do not. The 21st Century has not been kind to MU in this series, as all six losses have happened since 2004.

Speaking of DePaul being shut out, that’s happened to the Blue Demons twice so far this season. They’re riding a streak of over 225 minutes without scoring a goal as their only two goals on the year so far happened in the first 70 minutes of their opener against Northern Illinois. DePaul then went to a scoreless draw against Loyola Chicago where they got outshot 20-10, including 11-3 in the second half. In their most recent contest this past Wednesday, the Blue Demons went down to Indianapolis and got smashed 5-0 by Butler. That game was 1-0 at the half with shots mostly even at 8-5, but the Bulldogs busted the game open with the second of three goals from Wilmer Cabrera just over three minutes into the second half and then outshot DePaul 10-2 in the final 45 minutes.

Jake Fuderer is the only Blue Demon to find the net this season, and one of his two goals against Northern Illinois came on a penalty kick. Jack Richards and David Gripman both assisted on Fuderer’s other goal to round out the full total of gents who have tallied a point so far this season.

Drew Nuelle has taken every minute in net so far this season for DePaul. He’s actually playing pretty well, as he’s knocked down 73% of shots on goal. That’s pretty good! However, because DePaul has been outshot 55-25 on the season, he’s allowing 2.03 goals per 90 minutes, even with a 110 minute shutout mixed in there.