Sept. 8, 2006

It was an inauspicious beginning for the Louis Bennett era in Marquette men’s soccer history, as the Golden Eagles fell 2-0 to DePaul in the head coach’s Valley Fields debut.

The loss was predicted.

Bennett’s squad, in the loss to the Blue Demons and in the five years since, has been unimpressive. The defense, according to Bennett, “played poorly” and looked “inadequate” at times, giving up the two DePaul goals within a span of three minutes. Marquette goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski, who spent one season with the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer, had two near impossible shots to save and came up empty on both.

Bennett played the role of fortuneteller in the post conference, proclaiming that the “ball will start going in the net when they start believing they will go in.” It took quite a few seasons for Bennett and the Golden Eagles to get going, but they finally found some significant success in 2010, going 7-8-4 and scoring 24 goals.

At this continued pace, Bennett will be able to forget what was indeed a very forgettable debut and focus on delivering a very memorable coaching tenure.