Marquette Men’s Soccer Season Ends With 2-1 Loss To #7 Georgetown

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Marquette men’s soccer to advance past Saturday afternoon’s regular season finale just because they were playing the #7 ranked team in the country and had to win to continue on to the Big East tournament.

But battle they did, and the Golden Eagles gave Georgetown a lot to chew on across the span of 90 minutes. But #7 team is gonna #7 team for a reason, and that’s how the Hoyas scored a 2-1 win over Marquette, thus bringing MU’s season to an end with a 7-6-3 record overall and a 1-5-2 record in Big East play.

For whatever it’s worth, Marquette needed help to get into the eight team Big East tournament heading into Saturday’s final match day. They needed three results to go their way, and they only got two of them. Had MU figured out a way past Georgetown — and remember, MU beat a #1 ranked Georgetown team two years ago — Seton Hall’s victory over Providence would have eliminated the Golden Eagles anyway.

You could easily argue that Marquette had the better of things in the early going, firing off three shots on target and forcing GU keeper Ryan Schewe to make two saves and get lucky with a team save cleared off the line all in the first 29 minutes. But the Hoyas withstood that early pressure, and Maximus Jennings put a superb header on a corner kick from Zach Zengue, Georgetown’s top assists man, in the 32nd minute for the first goal of the game.

Marquette managed just one more shot the entire rest of the half, although it was on frame and cut off by Schewe. A back and forth second half at least created the impression that Marquette was capable of finding an equalizer, but as time clicked off the clock, it started to seem less and less likely. Finally, in the 73rd minute, Jacob Murrell put a nail in Marquette’s coffin.

The pass from Max Viera is much better looking than the shot from Murrell, but they don’t all have to be picturesque to count on the scoreboard. The Golden Eagles did pull one back in the 76th minute as Dominik Danis volleyed in a boot from Christian Marquez just seconds after checking into the match, and MU would have two more official shot attempts in the final five minutes of the game, but the Hoyas were able to smother things out and end the regular season.

With the season brought to an end, we have to pay tribute to the seven Marquette seniors who were honored before the match on Saturday. A big Anonymous Eagle THANK YOU goes out to Kacper Chrapczynski, Joey Fitzgerald, Adrian Lara, Noah Madrigal, Christian Marquez, Brooklyn Merl, and Jonas Moen for everything that they’ve done for Marquette soccer since arriving in Milwaukee. It’s safe to say that not everything has gone as smoothly as these guys would have liked it to go, even with the Golden Eagles advancing to the Sweet 16 of the spring 2021 NCAA tournament, and you don’t have to look further than Marquette struggling in Big East play after rolling off six straight wins to start the 2023 season. But that hasn’t stopped these seniors from working hard every day, on and off the field, and playing their part and doing their job each and every time the team got together. Marquette fans everywhere thank you for representing the blue and gold to the best of your abilities and wish you nothing but the best in whatever comes next.