Edrey Caceres Helps Marquette Steal A Point From Providence

It certainly looked like Marquette men’s soccer was about to drop to 0-3-1 in Big East play after starting off league action with a scoreless draw against Xavier. Many many things had not gone well for the Golden Eagles since they went to the half up 1-0 on Providence, and with the clock winding past the 88:00 mark and the Friars holding a 3-2 lead over the Golden Eagles, things were pretty dire.

And then, this happened.

I mean, what? Literally, what was Providence keeper Lukas Burns thinking? There are 90 seconds left in a game where your team only took the lead for the first time all afternoon about six minutes earlier. AND ON TOP OF THAT, Marquette has 10 men, as Tristan Ronnestad-Stevens had taken a red card just second earlier AND the Golden Eagles were already without Alex Mirsberger, who was serving a red card suspension himself. Stay home, my guy, and let your defender deal with the sprinting Marquette attacker, it’s not like they’re going to get a great shot immediately from that. What happens as a result of his decision? He effectively passes it directly to a charging Edrey Caceres who almost doesn’t have to try to loft his first touch directly into the wide open and unattended net.

The goal by Caceres pulls Marquette even at three a side, and after a minute and 14 seconds of booting it around, the two sides finally settled on that 3-3 draw. Upside: Marquette had no business snagging this point, but they did anyway. Downside: MU is still winless in Big East play this season at 0-2-2.

How did we get here? Nothing normal, that’s for sure.

In the 44th minute, Providence got called for a handball in the box that can be described as “He threw his elbow out while turning his back to a close in shot and it hit him in the tricep.” You can’t look like you hit a UFC elbow strike on the ball and say it was an accident, my guy. Anyway, Lukas Sunesson converted, and Marquette went into intermission up 1-0.

The second half went along, and while Beto Soto made Burns stop a shot, things were trending in Providence’s direction in the early going. They racked up four shots and two corner kicks in a three-ish minute span, so it was only a matter of time before something worked out for them. The something in this case was an own goal, as Ludvig Malberg got a mitt on a high angle shot and Kyle Bebej tried to knock it down, but instead knocked it in.

Not the way you want to give up your 1-0 lead, that’s for sure.

But Soto had his teammate’s back and picked the Golden Eagles up less than two minutes later.

That’s just good soccering.

Back and forth the soccer went from there for a while, but Providence would score two less than eight minutes apart. First, it was Esben Wolf getting his first of the year on a perfectly played header off a corner kick in the 75th minute.

Then, in the 83rd minute, PC took their first lead of the day as Gil Santos took a crack at beating Malberg and did.

That’s what set up the equalizer for Caceres just minutes later, and so Marquette will come back from their road trip with a 0-1-1 mark.

Up Next: Marquette continues their quest for a Big East victory on Wednesday night. They’ll be back at Valley Fields for a pair of matches next week, but it will be Seton Hall up first. The Pirates are 4-1-5 overall this season and 1-0-3 in league action. They will tangle with UConn on Saturday night before coming to Milwaukee, and as coincidence would have it, the Huskies are MU’s guest next Saturday.