When Marquette dropped to 0-3-0 in Big East matches last week Friday without a single goal scored, I was very much not looking forward to writing this preview. That sense extended all the way to Tuesday
evening at 6:59pm Central time, aka right before the Golden Eagles kicked off against Illinois-Chicago.
And then they won a crazy match by a score of 5-4.
That match is currently responsible for 27.8% of Marquette’s goals this season, and their output from that game was equivalent to 38.5% of the goals they had scored in the previous nine matches this year.
This obviously begs the obvious question: Did Marquette find a way to break through whatever blockage was stopping them from scoring goals lately OR was playing a non-Big East team more responsible for what happened. After all, the Golden Eagles put up three goals against Milwaukee, giving them eight goals total in their last two non-conference games against zero goals in three Big East matches this year. Remember: The Milwaukee match happened AFTER Big East play started, so it’s not like they had three straight scoreless matches!
For many reasons, Marquette can not go without a goal on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis. Not just “it’d be weird and bad to get blanked after scoring five” or “Butler’s goalie is kind of bad” or whatever else. Plain and simple as “Marquette is the only Big East team without a goal in league play, and the Butler match will bring them to the midway point of the conference schedule.” With five matches left to play, it’s not the worst thing that Marquette is still point free while Creighton leads the Midwest Division with six points. Change that to four matches left, no goals scored, and the Jays remain on top with nine points?
Season’s kinda over at that point, right?
Big East Match #4: at Butler Bulldogs (4-8-0, 1-2-0 Big East)
Date: Saturday, October 11, 2025
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Varsity Field, Indianapolis, Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 9-7-1 all time against Butler. The early and late portions of the series have been favoring the Golden Eagles, while the Bulldogs won four straight between 2014 and 2017. Marquette is 5-2-1 in the last eight encounters, including a 2-0 victory in Milwaukee last season.
Congrats to Butler for doubling their win total in their last two matches. Beating DePaul 4-0 on October 3rd snapped a five match losing streak for the Bulldogs, and it was an ugly one, too. 4-1 to #10 Pitt, 4-0 to Ohio State, and 5-0 to Georgetown led the Butler posting a -14 goal differential in those matches overall, and so getting four against the Blue Demons helped balance out their overall goal differential on the year. Were the last two goals aided by a DePaul red card? Maybe, not the point!
On Tuesday night, Butler followed up that game by going up to Michigan and coming away with a 2-1 victory over Oakland. They had to fight for that one after taking a 2-0 lead in the 38th minute and then conceding a goal in the 64th. Oakland outshot Butler 10-4 after halftime for an overall 19-10 shots advantage, which helped continue to tilt BU’s overall shots for/against average away from them. They’re not that bad underwater right now at 13.3 vs 11.9, particularly when you look at those eight losses on the year, but that’s still a hard way to stay competitive, no matter who your opponent is.
Aiden Benitez leads the way for a Butler offense that is getting outscored 22-11 this season. He has a team high three goals and is tied with Josemir Gomez for the assists lead at three each. That leaves Benitez out in front for the team lead in points, where he has nine on the year. Benitez is the team leader in shots with 21, but Gomez and Ryan Hannosh aren’t that far behind him and will require attention on the defensive side of the field.
Aurie Briscoe has been Butler’s goalkeeper all year long, and that’s not necessarily a great thing if you remember that goal differential discussion a moment ago. That’s led Briscoe to a goals-against average of 1.83 allowed per 90 minutes. That number is that close to two because Briscoe is only stopping 62.7% of shots on goal this season. This feels like if Marquette can tilt the shot ratio in their favor, they can score goals in this game. However, Butler is pretty stingy on the shot ratio thing this season and [gestures broadly at Marquette’s scoring woes].
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