The Marquette men’s soccer team suffered a frustrating 1-0 loss to West Virginia Saturday night at Valley Fields. The Golden Eagles created few chances in the game and earned three yellow cards, two of which went to midfielder Anthony Colaizzi, resulting in a sending off. The other yellow went to sophomore Calum Mallace, his fifth so far on the season, which means he will not play against Notre Dame on Wednesday
The Golden Eagles are now 2-5-2 overall and 1-2-2 in the Big East.
“I think we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” coach Louis Bennett said. “They smothered us. But then the dynamics of the game changed.”
The first half started off slow, with much of the play occurring in the middle of the field. Marquette dominated most of the possession, but like games past, failed to create any opportunities to score.
The Mountaineers had the first real chance at scoring in the 29th minute when Abel Sebele made a shot that curled just wide of the post. However, Marquette answered in kind when a 40th minute cross from Billy Von Rueden found the head of forward Andrew Krynski. The ball was about to cross the goal line but deflected off the hands of the West Virginia goalkeeper.
“The first half we played great,” Krynski said. “We put a lot of pressure on them. I thought we had chances and we still could have won.”
In the second half, Marquette’s best opportunity at a goal was in the 60th minute. Mallace fired a long range volley from 30 yards out that dipped over the hands of the goalkeeper, only to hit the sidebar and bounce away. However, in that same minute, Mallace received a questionable yellow card from the referee for a slide tackle.
West Virginia scored in the 74th minute after a corner kick caused a scramble in the box. The ball landed in front of Jason Bristol, who capitalized and fired the ball into the back of the net.
“I saw too many blue shirts and not enough white,” associate head coach Stan Anderson said. “(Matt Pyzdrowski) got his hands on the ball but they know they have to impact that play and they didn’t impact that play. It’s an easy goal for them and that’s what we need to learn from.”
In the 76th minute, Colaizzi received a caution and four minutes later he picked up his second yellow and was sent out of the game.
