In the preview for Saturday’s Marquette men’s soccer match against Northwestern, I noted that the Golden Eagles have been experiencing a massive shot deficit this season. This was exaggerated by a bad outing against Wisconsin, but that was merely a bad version of something that was happening to them anyway all season long.
And so, Saturday’s match started up, and Northwestern recorded the first three shots of the match, and the clock clicked past the 30 minute mark without MU even getting one on the board.
Oh no, it’s happening again, just in slow motion, etc.
And then… Mads Konrad Horgoien got just enough of a touch on the ball in the 34th minute to poke it past NU keeper Gino Cervoni. I’d put the Twitter video clip in here, but Marquette didn’t actually clip it correctly, you just see MU celebrating.
Somehow, that score stood up to halftime, even though the Golden Eagles were getting outshot 6-1 in the opening 45 minutes. Interestingly, things turned around for the Golden Eagles immediately out of the gate after the break, as they were the ones to record the first shot of the half, and, well, I’ll let you see it:
That’s the first two shots of the second half, although they’re both credited to Hudson Torrez on the live stats. Clearly that’s not Torrez on the first one as he cleans up the mess for the 2-0 lead precisely 60 seconds into the half. That blocked shot goes in the books as Marquette’s only shot of the entire game that did not go in the net, by the way.
And so now the Golden Eagles are parading around Valley Fields with a 2-0 lead and a 6-3 shot deficit that is obviously going to get worse as the game goes along because if you thought Marquette was struggling to generate shots when the score was tied or they were up only 1-0, HOO BOY, now they don’t even have a motivation to score all that much other than the old adage “a two goal lead is the most dangerous lead in soccer.”
That paid off in the 61st minute when a cross played into the box by Northwestern was headed on goal and MU keeper Cameron Simpson made a solid low angle save. However, he only stopped it, and it bounced off of him, straight to Italo Addimandi’s head and thus right into the net. 2-1, but that’s still Marquette up a goal with just under 30 minutes to play.
Northwestern didn’t really turn on the gas after that, but they were clearly pushing for an equalizer as time wore on. Maybe things were getting a little nerve wracking, but Marquette was withstanding the pressure, right up until Tomiwa Adewumi got enough space to shoot in a quick deflection-generated counter/transition play in the 83rd minute.
That is Adewumi’s fifth shot on goal of the season. All five have gone in the net.
That’s 3-1 Marquette, and that lead did hold up til the end of the match. Somehow, Marquette won while getting outshot 13-4. Somehow, Marquette scored three goals on four shots, and the fourth shot didn’t even get to the end line. It’s not a textbook victory by any means, and you could argue that this still leaves head coach David Korn an awful lot to work on with his squad, but they are 3-1-1 on the year, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Up Next: Marquette returns to action on Wednesday night for the second contest in a three match homestand. It’ll be St. Thomas coming to town as the opposition, and first kick on ESPN+ will be at 6pm Central time. The Tommies are 3-1-2 on the year after beating Milwaukee 1-0 at Engelmann Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Do you think UST is going back to the Twin Cities between now and Wednesday?
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle
