Survive & Advance: Marquette Eliminates Loyola Marymount On Penalty Kicks

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand exhale.

After 110 minutes of scoreless soccer on Sunday afternoon, the NCAA tournament match between Marquette and Loyola Marymount had to be settled on penalty kicks. It got settled quickly, as Beto Soto and Lukas Sunesson both scored easily on their kicks at #1 and #2 in the order while LMU’s Noel Caliskan had his shot saved by Marquette keeper Chandler Hallwood and Bastien Oberli missed his shot high and to the left.

2-0 Marquette in a best of five tries competition, meaning that LMU could not miss again. Both teams had their third tries go in the net, making it 3-1. Marquette’s Zyan Andrade had his shot saved in the fourth round, as LMU keeper Mitchell Wilson, fresh off the bench after the regular playing time had ended, got on the board to keep his team alive.

But it didn’t matter. Loyola’s Ronaldo Brown over-thought his attempt in the bottom of the fourth round. He thought he had gotten Hallwood to go one way, and pushed his shot slowly to the right side of the net.... and to the right side of the right post. It calmly rolled over the end line, not into the net, and Hallwood looked almost like he was taken by surprise that his team had just won the shootout.

But they did, 3-1. The 110 minutes of action ended scoreless, so officially the match goes on Marquette’s record as a draw, but the Golden Eagles are advancing! It’s Marquette’s second time advancing in the NCAA tournament in just the fourth ever appearance in the event. MU last advanced in their most recent NCAA tournament appearance in 2013, when they beat Akron, 1-0, in overtime at Valley Fields.

It was very much a Spring 2021 Marquette men’s soccer match for the two halves and two sessions of extra time. The Golden Eagles were outshot 22-9, with the Lions getting seven of those shots on goal against only two for Marquette. Hallwood performed admirably in MU’s net, as we have come to expect this season, snaring all seven LMU shots on goal, just like he did on Caliskan’s penalty kick attempt.

Here’s a two minute long highlight reel, half of which is literally just from the penalty kicks, courtesy of the NCAA and GoMarquette.com.

Up Next: We know that Marquette’s next game in the NCAA tournament will be on Thursday, May 6th. We don’t know the time yet or the location, other than it will be somewhere in North Carolina as the whole tournament will be played in the area of Cary where Sunday’s match took place. We also don’t know who MU’s opponent will be, as the second round match between #3 national seed Indiana and St. Francis Brooklyn is just about to start as I type this on Sunday afternoon. We’ll have a preview for that game either Wednesday or Thursday morning, depending on when the third round match ends up being set to start.