Decimated by injuries in this young spring season, the Marquette men's soccer team rolled on for a good cause Saturday evening.
The team was forced to cancel its 9 a.m. game against Wisconsin-Parkside Saturday because of a slew of recent injuries, but the Golden Eagles kept their commitment with Wisconsin-Milwaukee to play in the Bob Summy Memorial Game.
The event, which took place at Shorewood High School, is in its third year and is held in honor of Bob Summy, a longtime advocate and friend of both teams. Summy passed away in 2005.
"Our game, the college game, soccer in general needs people like that to get behind a program, and he did," associate head coach Stan Anderson said. "No matter how small or great someone like that does get involved and get behind and support, we need to embrace people like that, and sadly we lost him."
Marquette's original plan to play in two matches was re-evaluated when the coaching staff became concerned with the alarming number of players that have caught the injury bug. Starting freshman defender Paul Monsen (ankle), oft-injured sophomore Scott Miller (ankle), junior goalkeeper Keenan Flynn (ankle), junior defender Tim Jallow (mono) and senior Dan Addis (knee), who missed the entire fall season, were all relegated to the bench.
Despite the injuries, the team held off UW-Milwaukee for 90 minutes before falling in penalty kicks.
Marquette defeated UW-Milwaukee in the Milwaukee Cup on Oct. 22, but the team had its hands full Saturday playing just 11 men.
"We've caught a little bit of a bad streak of guys catching little injuries and what not," sophomore Matt Stummer said. "We were very happy that everyone is now on the mend — hopefully."
The game went scoreless, without either team getting a good opportunity until a UW-Milwaukee shot was stopped by Marquette keeper Matt Pyzdrowski and the rebound rolled right to the Panthers' D.J. Alexander, who knocked it in for a 1-0 lead.
The Golden Eagles didn't get many looks at the net until the second half when sophomore midfielder Anthony Colaizzi began sending cross after cross from the left side directly in front of goal. Finally, Colaizzi hit junior forward Nick Kay in front of the net for the tying goal.
Colaizzi continued his barrage of spot-on passes but to no avail as defender Michael Alfano launched one shot over the net and junior midfielder Tom Lynn sent another shot wide right.
With neither team able to break the tie, the game went to penalty kicks. Pyzdrowski, of course, would have preferred the win but said he loves penalty kicks.
"I just love thriving at the big moments," he said. "Having that opportunity to come up with the big save…if you're a goalkeeper, if you make one save and you win, you're the hero."
Both teams made their first three shots, before Colaizzi stepped up and missed wide right. Pyzdrowski then kept Marquette in contention by tipping the next Panther attempt.
Another player from each team sank their shot before Kay's attempt was deflected by the UW-Milwaukee keeper and bounced off the left post. The Panthers sealed the victory with a chip shot that floated past Pyzdrowski.
"Obviously, this time it didn't go so well," Pyzdrowski said. "But I think overall the game was a success for us. We struggled at one thing and that was putting the ball in the back of the net."