The Marquette men’s soccer team rallied back from two goals down to draw with the No. 9 Cardinals 2-2 late in the second half at Valley Fields Sunday.

This was Marquette’s third top 10 opponent in five games.

Marquette entered the match-up fresh from their 1-0 double overtime win over Cincinnati on Friday and were looking to repeat against the 5-1-1 Cardinals; a team Louis Bennett has never bested in his four years as Marquette head coach.

However, the Golden Eagles failed to start strong, and gave up a dubious penalty inside the Louisville box in just the 4th minute. Midfielder Freddie Braun converted the penalty into the upper left corner of the net and sent Marquette goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski the other way.

Marquette tried to rally back with a shot on goal in the 14th minute but the Cardinal defense cleared the ball of the line. Marquette’s chances of recovering became more difficult in the 23rd minute by giving up another goal. After a long assist, Louisville forward Mark Knight put the ball into the back of the net after his first shot rebounded off Pyzdrowski.

“I thought we gave the game away in the first 25 minutes,” Bennett said. “I thought we came out flat. Like a team that had played double overtime two nights earlier. I would say 90 percent of the things we did we did incorrectly. We didn’t recognize ourselves.”

The rain began to pour down on Valley Fields but it only took 12 minutes into the second half for Marquette to find the back of the net. Louisville committed a foul outside of the Marquette box setting up a set piece from 30 yards out. Initially, Amilcar Herrera ran over the ball, but Billy Von Rueden took the shot across the grass and into the back of the net past the diving Louisville goalkeeper.

“The game plan shone through in the second half,” Von Rueden said. “We really wanted to start with that in the first half. We cleaned our wounds (at halftime) and then came on and did what we were supposed to do.”

It would take two minutes from time for Marquette to find the breakthrough they needed after Amilcar Herrera found a pass from Andrew Krynski, turned and fired the ball into the left corner of the net.

“I got a cross from Krynski, I was just in the box by myself, took a touch and concentrated on putting the ball in the back of the net,” Herrera said. “Luckily it just went in.”