First Place! Marquette 3, DePaul 2

Thanks to a lack of lights at Wish Field in Chicago, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles kicked off Big East play on Thursday afternoon against DePaul, and they’re walking away from Lincoln Park with three points! The Golden Eagles scored three unanswered goals and got a monster save very late from keeper Chloe Olson to preserve a 3-2 victory over the Blue Demons. Marquette is now 5-3-1 on the year, but 1-0-0 in league action and thus in a five-way tie for first place.

Things started out not great for the Golden Eagles as they dominated possession and attack in the early going, outshooting DePaul 5-0 in the first 15 minutes and Isabella Cook clacked two different shots off the goal frame to keep the thing scoreless juuuuuust long enough for DePaul to open up the scoring in the 18th minute. It was admittedly a nice piece of soccer as Kristin Boos lofts a perfectly placed pass over a Marquette defender for Katie Godden to body it to the ground and place it into the corner of the net where Olson couldn’t get to it in time.

The match started evening out in terms of opportunities, but the Golden Eagles’ dedication to playing their game paid off when their fifth corner kick of the match turned into an Olympico, well, kind of technically. Mia Haertle gets credit for the goal since she launched the kick, but the assist goes to DePaul keeper Elana Milam for her poor hand angles.

1-1 held up through intermission, but the Golden Eagles were only getting started. About 10 minutes into the second half, Maggie Starker made a strong play along the end line and was dragged down for her trouble. It was inside the 18 yard box, so the penalty kick call was made and Cook recorded her third goal of the year to make it 2-1. That lead did not last as Marquette kept up the pressure. In the 63rd minute, DePaul was unable to get a square touch on a ball nice and close to Milam’s net, and Julia O’Neill ran in from seemingly out of nowhere to pop in what would turn out to be the game-winning goal.

The game started to proceed to the endgame with the Golden Eagles up by two, and things got later and later and later.... and then some garbage happened with less than 10 minutes to go.

Let’s go to the video.

That’s not a penalty, and it’s not a foul at all. DePaul’s Lina Dantes gets to the ball first and Chloe Olson makes the stop on the chip attempt. Dantes maaaaybe makes contact with Olson’s arm as she goes by, but that’s not Olson’s fault, and then Olson dives to wrap it up to avoid a second chance. Whatever happened to goalkeeper’s privilege?

Anyway, as you can guess, penalty given, and Kirsten Boos makes it 3-2 in the 81st minute. Suddenly DePaul can smell blood, or at least the “salvaging a draw” equivalent of blood. They’re very invested in pushing hard to find that equalizer, while Marquette just wants to play keep away.

That brings us to the 88th minute where Chloe Olson finally gets to make a game saving play.

That is good and fun and the official scorer in charge of this match can go straight to hell because this isn’t even credited as a shot for DePaul. If it’s not a shot, there’s no save for Olson. Garbage.

Anyway, DePaul got one more chance with just over two minutes to go, but Freya Jupp skied her shot over the crossbar, and Marquette is the team highfiving and so forth after the horn.

How about some highlights, courtesy of FloSports and GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: The road trip continues for the Golden Eagles as they try to stay unbeaten in league play. It’ll be Butler up next down in Indianapolis on Sunday, with first kick set for Noon Central time. The Bulldogs are 3-5-1 on the season after falling 1-0 to Xavier on Thursday night in their Big East opener.