#23 Marquette Retains The Milwaukee Cup With A Draw

It’s not the result that you want coming out of opening up league play with a loss, but when it allows you to keep a rivalry trophy in your possession, you’ll take it.

Ryan Amond’s 63rd minute goal pulled Marquette men’s soccer even with Milwaukee on Tuesday night, and that 1-1 score stayed true to the end of 90 minutes. That gives Marquette their first draw of the season, moving them to 6-1-1 on the year, while the Panthers also take their first draw at 2-4-1. But, as mentioned, since the Golden Eagles won last year’s encounter, that means The Milwaukee Cup remains in Marquette’s possession until next fall.

It was not a good start for Marquette, or at the very least, it was not a good start for Jai Hsieh-Bailey. After missing the Creighton match to open Big East action because of a red card in MU’s previous match, Hsieh-Bailey executed a slide tackle in the fourth minute of the match. The play happened to be in the 18 yard box, and when the Milwaukee attacker went down as a result, the referee awarded a penalty kick. Given the camera angles at Engelmann Stadium, I’m not completely convinced either way on the justification for the call, but I can say it was the type of play that you’re nearly asking the referee to give the foul.

In any case, Ludwig Malberg came inches away from solving the issue for the Golden Eagles, but Raul Medina slipped the PK in between a diving Malberg and the post for a 1-0 Milwaukee lead.

As for how the rest of the half went, it kind of looked like two teams trying to figure each other out as opposed to a team leading and a team trailing, but it went to the half knotted at one each.

The early parts of the second half kind of looked the same, at least up until this outstanding ball movement from Abdoul Karim Pare and Kyle Bebej to find Ryan Amond, who pulled Marquette even with Milwaukee.

From there, Marquette took over the match. In the remaining 26 minutes of action, the Golden Eagles heavily outshot the Panthers, 8-3, with all three Milwaukee shots coming in a seven minute window. MU was able to pressure MKE keeper Daniel Ibarra and his defense, but just two of Marquette’s shots down the stretch went as saves.... but they were also both in the last 11 minutes of the game, including an attempt by Brooklyn Merl with just 20 seconds left to play in regulation.

Up Next: Winless in their last two matches, Marquette will attempt to change that this weekend when they make a trip to Indianapolis. That means a match with Butler on Saturday, with a 6pm Central time start on FloSports. The Bulldogs are just 1-4-1 on the year after suffering a 1-0 loss to Indiana on Tuesday night, but they did open Big East action with a 2-1 win over Villanova for their only victory of the year so far.