MILWAUKEE, Wis. - A pair of unanswered second-half goals broke open a scoreless tilt to propel Marquette (3-2) to a 2-0 men's soccer victory past Drake (1-3-1) on Saturday (Sept. 13).
“Marquette advanced to the Sweet 16 last season and is a very accomplished team that returned a lot of players this season,” Drake head coach Sean Holmes commented. “They earned some good results in the first week of the season and I thought we hung in the game tonight despite them having the majority of the possession in the first half. When you are in a toe-to-toe battle with a team like this we can't afford mistakes.”
“We had two letdowns in the second half sandwiched between some good opportunities for us. These are the type of games, coming on the road to a Big East opponent, that we wanted to schedule to test our team. I know the guys battled, so I was pleased with our fight and resolve.”
The Bulldogs battled the Golden Eagles through a scoreless first half despite Marquette outshooting the Drake, 4-1, including 3-0 on net.
Sophomore Mueng Sunday (Coralville, Iowa/Iowa City West) registered the Bulldog's lone shot in the first half, an attempt that went wide.
“We have to realize that games like this are not won by moments of brilliance, but are lost by silly mistakes,” said Holmes. “Part of our quest for maturity is to eliminate those errors and to keep to our very simple and straight-forward game plan.”
David Selvaggi scored what proved to be the game-winning tally in the 64th minute (63:34) tapping in a cross off assists from Alex McBride and C. Nortey to give Marquette a 2-0 lead.
Selvaggi added his second goal of the evening at the 74:55 mark, delivering on a penalty kick to extend the Golden Eagles' advantage to 2-0.
The Bulldogs missed on their first four shot attempts in the final stanza before freshman Steven Enna (Overland Park, Kan./St. James Academy) struck a shot in the 86th minute (85:37) that Marquette goalkeeper Charlie Lyon had to make a diving stop to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard.
“Steven (Enna) had some creative moments moving forward and I thought Thomas (Schermoly) put in a really good shift and helped us battle hard against a strong opponent,” Holmes explained. “Austin (Errthum), Alec (Bartlett), Mason (Leonard) and James (Grunert) had good outings in the back this evening, while Darrin (MacLeod) made a save on a free kick early in the game that may have changed the momentum in the game had it gone in.”
On the evening, Drake was outshot, 15-6, including 7-1 on net. A game-high three-shot performance from Enna leading the Bulldogs, while three different Marquette players recorded three shots.
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Darrin MacLeod (Waterloo, Ontario/Resurrection Catholic) made five saves for Drake, while Lyons posted one stop for the Golden Eagles.
“Our three losses this season to Milwaukee, UIC and Marquette have all come against teams that are in or around the top 25 and will continue to be,” said Holmes. “This is how we've chosen to measure ourselves and it can only help us to prepare for the rigors of the conference we play in. I think games like this we have to learn to survive and know we won't necessarily outplay opponents on the road, but we have to find a way to find differences in game and fashion a result out of difficult circumstances.”
Drake returns to action on Wednesday (Sept. 17) with a 12:00 p.m. contest at DePaul.
