Yes, I know, I usually save these big blowout full Big East rundowns for the start of Big East play, but Marquette opened up conference action last weekend. The catch is that the NCAA didn’t debut the RPI for this season until AFTER Friday’s Big East opener against Georgetown, so it was hard to take a measurement of where everyone was standing.
Heading into Match #2 of league play, we’ve got that RPI as well as a couple of extra matches worth of data points on everyone. Seems like a great time to go through
this, not to mention Marquette has wrapped up their Division 1 non-conference contests as well. It’s all Big East matches from here on out, with the lone exception of an otherwise pointless home game against Carroll, so why not see what the rest of the league has been doing?
This is serving as our preview for Marquette’s match against Creighton this weekend, so let’s get those details out of the way here.
Big East Match #2: vs #7 Creighton Bluejays (8-0-2, 1-0-0 Big East)
Date: Saturday, September 26, 2026
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 9-11-2 all time against Creighton. That series has turned as of late, as the Golden Eagles are winless in the last four meetings with the Bluejays. Last year was a 1-0 defeat in Omaha which was simultaneously 1) a tremendous bummer by way of the nature of how and Creighton scored (a ricochet off the post on a free kick that left MU no chance to stop it), 2) Marquette’s first loss of the 2025 campaign, 3) the first loss on the way to a 1-7 mark in Big East play, and 4) the first of six shutout losses in Big East play.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what the rest of the Big East has been up to this season. We’ll go in order of the RPI as of the morning of Thursday, September 24. We’ll drop in each team’s record and their stat leaders, as well as how their primary goalkeeper has been doing this season. We’ll also point out their best win and worst loss in the eyes of the RPI before we wander around in what’s been happening in their season so far.
Let’s get to it, because we’ve got 11 teams to get to even though Marquette doesn’t even play three of them this season…
Georgetown Hoyas: #6
Record: 7-1-1, 1-0-0 Big East
United Soccer Coaches Ranking: #5
Points Leader: Mitchell Baker, 16
Goals Leader: Mitchell Baker, 7
Assists Leader: Matthew Van Horn & Mateo Ponce Ocampo, 5
Primary Keeper: Charlie DeMarco; 0.89 GAA, .750 SV%
Best Win: vs #27 Marquette, 3-0
Only Loss: at #2 Maryland, 3-2
We are going to talk more about this Top 30 Marquette Thing in a second, so just mull over “that’s GU’s best win” when we get there.
Georgetown appears to be everything they were advertised to be at the start of the season. They’ve got scoring, they’ve got goalkeeping, they’ve got defense where even the shots they are allowing are generally spraying all over the yard, etc., etc. My personal experience watching them against Marquette was either 1) Marquette didn’t have a plan as to what to do with them once the Hoyas had a lead or 2) The Hoyas are perfectly designed to completely evaporate any chance Marquette had at looking competent. Could be a mix of both things, and if Georgetown can do the second thing to most teams, I don’t see how they do anything but skate to the league championship.
Xavier Musketeers: #15
Record: 5-0-2, 0-0-1 Big East
Points Leader: Gerard Lorente, 10
Goals Leader: Gerard Lorente, 3
Assists Leader: Gerard Lorente & Alejandro Silvestrini, 4
Primary Keeper: Jonny Mennell; 0.59 GAA (best in the Big East), .810 SV%
Best Win: at #24 Northwestern, 3-2
Worst Draw: at #126 DePaul, 1-1
Xavier has not appeared in the United Soccer Coaches poll this season. Not for one single second, not even receiving one vote and sitting outside the top 25. That seems a little bit surprising for a team that hasn’t taken on a loss yet this season, but I think there’s a couple of things working against them. A scoreless draw against Bellarmine in their second match of the year didn’t help. Giving up a late goal to DePaul to end up in a draw after only managing a penalty kick earlier in the match isn’t helping them in the most recent poll. They have just one top 50 opponent…. but they beat Northwestern, which is helping them sit at #15 in the RPI even though the poll voters don’t care about them that much.
I feel like we should point out that Gerard Lorente’s goals came in the first match of the season and then two in their most recent game… which was a 6-0 demolition of Wright State. He scored XU’s second and fourth goals, and then assisted on the sixth. The entire match is lopsiding their offensive stats for the year, as they have just nine goals in their other six contests. They have Villanova and Marquette at home in their next two matches, so I feel like that’s going to explain a lot about the Musketeers by that point… but then that’s also 3 of 8 league contests done so it kind of has to, right?
Akron Zips: #19
Record: 5-0-2, 0-0-1 Big East
United Soccer Coaches Ranking: #17
Points Leader: Thomas O’Rourke, 5
Goals Leader: Jack Sullivan & Noa Testa, 2
Assists Leader: Thomas O’Rourke, 3
Primary Keeper: Brett Kaminski; 0.73 GAA, .583 SV%
Best Win: vs #31 Cornell, 3-2
Worst Draw: vs #168 Butler, 0-0
By the way: Akron’s other draw is lousy as well, going to a scoreless tie with #149 Army, and the Knights are the second worst team, RPI-wise, that the Zips have played this season… and Butler’s the worst. Not the worst team on the schedule, they still have a road trip against Cleveland State coming up in late October.
See, Akron’s ranking is why I was little bit fuzzy on Xavier’s lack of a single vote. This feels a little bit like “well, they were #12 in the preseason” object permanence by the voters than anything else, at least relative to the lack of attention for unbeaten Xavier. The difference, of course, is that Akron also has a road win over a good Saint Louis team, and so their RPI maybe makes a little bit more sense.
Or at least it would if they didn’t outshoot Butler 22-4 but still fail to put a goal past the Bulldogs. That’s two matches — Xavier/DePaul is the other one — on the first match day of the league slate that’s thrown the Big East’s Midwest Division into a bit of tumult already because the team that you would think should be heavily favored ended up with a draw. In Akron’s case, they didn’t even get a goal out of it. With five goals against Robert Morris on Tuesday, they’re averaging two goals a match now, so that’s more than healthy…. but that also means that they had just nine goals in their first six contests. That’s not enough to help keeper Brett Kaminski out, not with that save percentage. That could be more about his defenders giving up too many easy shots but Akron’s outshooting teams 19.3 to 7.0 on average. Converting chances is clearly their bigger problem.
Creighton Bluejays: #23
Record: 8-0-2, 1-0-0 Big East
United Soccer Coaches Ranking: #7
Points Leader: Matthew Reed, 15
Goals Leader: Matthew Reed, 7
Assists Leader: Carter Tavares, 5
Primary Keeper: I’ll explain in a second
Best Win: vs #34 FIU, 6-2
Worst Draw: vs #134 Saint Mary’s, 3-3
Yes, the top four teams in the Big East have a combined one loss between them, and it’s against the #2 team in the country. That’s not terrible for the league, no matter what the level of wins involved is.
Matthew Hudson played Creighton’s first two matches of the season and their two most recent matches as well. He started one of the six in the middle of all of that, but left after 65 minutes with the Jays up 4-0. Amari Thompson started the other five matches in the middle of the season and played every minute of those. Weirdly, he’s not the guy who came on for the final 25 minutes when Hudson subbed out of that one match. This leaves the two guys pretty much even in starts and minutes played, but Hudson is clearly the right option in net in terms of stats. He’s got a goals-against average of 0.64 and a save percentage of .857. Thompson? 1.20 and .684. This shouldn’t be close, but I can’t say for certain what head coach Johnny Torres is going to do.
By the way: Carter Tavares is definitely Creighton’s assists leader, but the Canadian freshman has been out indefinitely since that bad 3-3 draw against Saint Mary’s because of a kidney injury suffered in a nasty collision on a play where he actually scored a goal. Creighton went to a draw in that contest because they couldn’t hold onto a 3-0 lead as the clock his 69:00. That’s not ideal, especially not for a team that’s still undefeated and so highly ranked.
Marquette Golden Eagles: #27
Record: 6-2-1, 0-1-0 Big East
Points Leader: Tomiwa Adewumi, 18, best in the Big East
Goals Leader: Tomiwa Adewumi, 8, best in the Big East
Assists Leader: Mateo Stoka, 4
Primary Keeper: Cameron Simpson; 1.44 GAA, .658 SV%
Best Win: vs #24 Northwestern, 3-1
Worst Loss: at #12 Wisconsin, 3-1
Let’s be 100% clear about this: Marquette’s top 30 RPI ranking is essentially completely dependent on a match that they won while getting outshot 13-4. Technically, Marquette had just three scoring chances in the entire match, as the one shot that they did not score on was deflected out and immediately turned into their second goal of the match, and they converted all three and thus won. That’s why, after about a month of matches, the Golden Eagles find themselves somehow in a position to hold onto a spot, at least based on RPI math, in the NCAA tournament picture as the season goes along. For the record, Marquette was at #31 on Monday and beating Milwaukee 1-0 is responsible for their current #27 ranking. That’s wild.
To be clear: Marquette probably should not have beaten Southern Indiana, and since the Screaming Eagles are the worst RPI team on MU’s schedule down at #198, a loss there would have absolutely changed where they are right now. But Tomiwa Adewumi did what he did, and he’s second in the country in total goals and fourth in goals-per game as a result, and so Marquette legitimately has a chance to claim a tournament bid…… even if their actual on-field play has absolutely not looked anywhere close to deserving that.
Villanova Wildcats: #51
Record: 4-3-1, 0-1-0 Big East
Points Leader: Luke Martelli, 7
Goals Leader: Luke Martelli & Fynn Lahrsen, 2
Assists Leader: Luke Martelli, 3
Primary Keeper: Alex Yagudayev; 0.86 GAA, .880 SV% (best in the Big East)
Best Win: vs #43 Drexel, 4-2
Worst Loss: at #55 St. John’s, 2-1
This is the first of the three teams that Marquette is not playing this season.
I’m not listing it because it’s their only one, but VU’s draw is pretty good. They went 1-1 at #17 Princeton back in late August. Now, that’s dragged down by losing their Big East opener against St. John’s — not a bad loss per se, just their worst loss of the year to this point — as well as taking a loss to #49 George Washington which may or may not because they gave Alex Yagudayev the day off. Then again, that was a match where GW got off 24 shots and was up 3-0 as the match passed the 80th minute AND Nova attempted 20 shots, 12 after halftime, so it feels like that’s not entirely the fault of backup keeper Dane Johnstone.
Giving up shots has been Nova’s problem all season long. Opponents are firing off 23.3 shots on average, so with that in mind, it’s a miracle that they’ve only allowed nine goals this season. Yes, giving up FORTY-THREE shots to Fordham has tilted that average, but 1) they won that match 1-0, 2) scoring in the 20th minute — on their only shot of the first half! — miiiiight have tilted the field against them as the match went along, and 3) Villanova has allowed at least 22 shots in every contest since then. That’s asking for problems with three matches against teams we’ve already talked about still on the board before the end of the season.
St. John’s Red Storm: #55
Record: 4-4-0, 1-0-0 Big East
Points Leader: Luca Fargnoli, 6
Goals Leader: Luca Fargnoli, 3
Assists Leader: Four players with 2
Primary Keeper: Nico Bezama; 1.62 GAA, .594 SV%
Best Win: vs #34 FIU, 1-0
Worst Loss: at #73 New Hampshire, 2-1
I just think it’s fun that St. John’s has a 5-0 loss to Syracuse and a 5-0 win against Loyola Maryland — both on the road! — on the books this season. In the past, I’ve hated watching Marquette visit Belson Stadium because those matches have a history of being the most insultingly boring contests you’ve ever seen in your life. However, if the Johnnies are capable of those extremes and they combine with their opponents to average over 25 shots a match, that might not be the case with this version of the Red Storm. MU doesn’t even travel to New York for this contest this season, but it’s still nice to know that St. John’s isn’t boring.
They’re going to either need a lot more scoring to get through Big East play in a happy place or a lot more saves from Bezama. He’s only made 19 stops all season, and “40% of shots on goal go in” is a bad way to try to live in this conference.
Providence Friars: #80
Record: 5-3-1, 0-1-0 Big East
Points Leader: Brian Garrepy & Angelo Ventrella, 12
Goals Leader: Brian Garrepy, 6
Assists Leader: Angelo Ventrella, 8, best in the Big East
Primary Keeper: Ryan Carney; 1.67 GAA, .717 SV%
Best Win: at #121 Harvard, 3-1
Worst Loss: at #72 Quinnipiac, 3-2
This is the second team that Marquette is not playing this season.
I think Providence qualifies as a “who wants to go to the fireworks factory?” team. Their lowest combined goal total of the season is two from a 1-1 draw against Boston University, but there’s a bunch of 3-2 matches on the board, too.
Their losses have a certain amount of “well, shoot” attached to them. That loss to Quinnipiac had the Friars giving up a goal 59 seconds into the second half to knot the match at 2 and then giving up the winner on a PK in the 82nd minute. Against Bryant, Providence was up 2-0 at the one hour mark but gave up two goals five minutes apart even as they clamped down on defense. Losing to Creighton in the Big East opener? That was just the Bluejays suffocating them as the match went along, with PC attempting just one shot after the Jays went up 3-0 in the 62nd.
Seton Hall Pirates: #82
Record: 3-2-3, 1-0-0 Big East
Points Leader: Nico Rubio, 5
Goals Leader: Mikkel Lejbowicz, 2
Assists Leader: Nico Rubio, 3
Primary Keeper: Devin Armstrong; 0.88 GAA, .848 SV%
Best Win: at #28 Rutgers, 1-0
Worst Loss: at #77 Duke, 2-1
Worst Draw: vs #176 Iona, 0-0
This is the third and final team that Marquette is not playing this season.
8 goals for, 7 goals against, three draws, getting outshot on the year, averaging 3.6 yellow cards and 14 fouls a match… you know what, I’m fine with not having to watch Marquette play this Seton Hall team. It’s working to a degree for them, but sometimes that’s “draw #17 Princeton 0-0 on the road” or “beat #28 Rutgers 1-0 on the road”…. and sometimes it’s “get outshot 11-10 by a terrible Iona team in a scoreless draw.“
I wanted to put this break in here because this is the dividing line between the top and bottom halves of the country. There’s only 213 Division 1 men’s soccer teams, so that’s not that far from “outside top 100 = bottom half of the country.” Did you notice how we already mentioned the three teams that MU isn’t playing this season?
DePaul Blue Demons: #126
Record: 2-1-4, 0-0-1 Big East
Points Leader: Noeh Hernandez, 14
Goals Leader: Noeh Hernandez, 5
Assists Leader: Noeh Hernandez & Daniel Hickiewicz, 4
Primary Keeper: I’ll explain in a minute.
Best Win: vs #208 Chicago State, 3-0
Only Loss: at #25 Ohio State, 6-0
Worst Draw: at #199 Bradley, 2-2
Sound the alarm: Noeh Hernandez is back to his old self! 2024: Big East Midfielder of the Year, eight goals on 43 shots, nine assists, logged over 1,200 minutes. 2025: Three goals on 48 shots, no assists, 1,062 minutes, came off the bench in three of his 16 appearances. He was my Big East Preseason Offensive Player of the Year in 2025, and that didn’t come through, alll the way to the point where I couldn’t actually justify him as a preseason all-BE player going into this season since the coaches completely left him off the all-conference teams at the end of 2025. The Ohio State is the only match this season where Hernandez has gone without a point.
As for the keeper situation, I don’t know who’s actually the primary here. Hayden Vostal started the first two matches of the season, got pulled at halftime of the second, which was the Ohio State game. That cost him the starting spot as Chance Johnson started the next two matches, but he left after 63 minutes of the second one…. and Vostal gave up what should have been the game winning goal late, but the Blue Demons managed an equalizer even later. Vostal kept the starting job for the next match, but it’s been Johnson for the last two matches, including the Big East opening draw against Xavier where he only allowed a penalty kick to the Musketeers. Neither guy is a great option with both below .700 in save percentage, but Vostal’s waaaay down there at .462. Johnson has the minutes advantage by about 125 minutes and he’s played the last two, so maaaaaaybe he’s the guy the rest of the way here?
Connecticut Huskies: #129
Record: 4-4-2, 0-1-0 Big East
Points Leader: Elijah Langford, 14
Goals Leader: Elijah Langford, 7
Assists Leader: Aiden Sheppela & Mateo Depinho, 3
Primary Keeper: Kyle Durham; 1.56 GAA, .650 SV%
Best Win: vs #107 Brown, 2-1
Worst Loss: vs #83 Fairfield, 1-0
Worst Draw: vs #108 Sacred Heart, 1-1
I wasn’t sure about including the Sacred Heart draw in here because there’s only two of them, but since it’s one spot lower than their best win, it felt relevant.
Things might get very ugly for Connecticut here. They’ve played just one top 70 opponent this season, and five of their remaining Big East contests qualify as that at the moment. They don’t have a problem generating offense in general, outscoring teams 21-15 and outshooting them 14.6 to 9.6 on average. However, 10 of their goals this season came in a 4-1 win over Western Michigan and a 6-1 win over something called Fisher College. Mix in 3-1 against Siena last time out, and now that goal differential is 8-12 going against the Huskies in their other seven matches this season.
A big problem for them is that Kyle Durham is nowhere close to leading the Big East in save percentage like he did last season. Heck, he’s nowhere close to his .803 save percentage from last year either. That led to him being tabbed as the Preseason Keeper of the Year this fall, and stopping 65% of shots on frame is just not living up to the hype here. Yes, his field defenders might be part of the problem, obviously. But at some point, it’s on Durham to be better than he’s been, and that might be a big reason why the Huskies are the second worst RPI team in the entire conference.
Butler Bulldogs: #168
Record: 0-6-2, 0-0-1 Big East
Points Leader: Brendan Cunningham, 3
Goals Leader: Three players with 1
Assists Leader: Three players with 1
Primary Keeper: Brooks Boersma; 1.75 GAA, .682 SV%
Worst Loss: vs #194 Lindenwood, 2-0
Good Draw: at #19 Akron, 0-0
Bad Draw: vs #199 Bradley, 0-0
For the record: Bradley is the worst RPI team on the board for Butler this season.
Butler has scored three goals all season. One of them was right before the half in a 5-1 loss to Memphis. The other two came in a 3-2 loss to Dayton, both in the first 25 minutes…. and then they gave up two to lose it, including the winner in the 87th.
I say this to point out that they got outshot 22-4 by Akron and still dragged a scoreless draw out of the Zips to start Big East play. It was the sixth time this season the Bulldogs got blanked, and that’s not a surprise…. but was just the second time that Brooks Boersma turned away all chances. The other one was that bad draw against Bradley! Who knows what Butler’s capable of the rest of the year? Not me, that’s for sure.
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