The road wasn’t always easy, but Marquette will play in the 2014 Big East tournament. Needing a win and some help, the Golden Eagles thrashed the DePaul Blue Demons 4-0. Xavier held their side of the bargain by defeating Butler, propelling Marquette into the sixth and final tournament seed.
Marquette will face the three seed Georgetown Hoyas in the first round on Tuesday. The two squads played to a 0-0 draw in their match earlier this season.
With the shutout redshirt senior keeper Charlie Lyon now holds the career shutout record by himself. He had previously shared the record of 28 shutouts with Jim Welsh since Marquette’s win over St. John’s on October 11th.
Sophomore Coco Navarro kicked off the scoring for Marquette in the 27th minute, when his shot from the top of the box deflected off the defender and into the top corner. The goal was Navarro’s second of the year.
Redshirt freshman Jack Alberts, who has developed quite the knack for scoring timely goals, pushed the Marquette lead to two in the waning minutes of the first half. A Louis Bennett free kick was headed to the corner by redshirt junior Axel Sjoberg, at just the right position for Alberts to capitalize.
The Golden Eagles refused to take their foot off the gas petal. Hermsen crossed inside the box to a wide-open Louis Bennett II, who beat DePaul keeper Mack Robinson in the 47th minute.
Rounding out the scoring was redshirt junior C. Nortey, who defeated the keeper 1-on-1 thanks to a through ball by redshirt freshman Daniel Szczepanik.
For Lyon, the latest record caps off a memorable and historic season. Welsh’s record has stood since he graduated from the school in 1997.
“I was just trying to go into the game and not think about (the record) too much,” Lyon explained. “You start to think about it with ten minutes left in the game, five minutes left in the game. I’m really proud to have done it.”
Lyon believes it was the perfect way for him to end his time playing in front of the Marquette faithful.
“To walk off of Valley Fields as a winner and setting the shutout record on senior night, that’s really special,” said Lyon. “I think it’s a pretty fitting ending.”
Marquette had hit a scoring slump towards the end of Big East play, but the uneasy feeling has been eradicated by seven goals in their last two matches. The Golden Eagles had been getting their chances previously, but just weren’t able to finish. Now the bounces are beginning to go their way.
“Soccer is a strange game sometimes,” Bennett said. “You can put all the right pieces in all the right places and sometimes it doesn’t come into fruition. If we had all the answers all the time we’d win all the time.”
The Golden Eagles didn’t entirely control their destiny, as they needed Butler to either lose or draw to Xavier in a match that began an hour prior to Marquette’s kickoff. The Musketeers put Marquette’s fate in the Golden Eagles own hands with a 2-0 victory.
The final tournament bracket was entirely up to the results of Friday night’s matches. After all the dust settled it turned out to be Georgetown in third place. Although Marquette knows the match will be a challenge, they have already shown that they can hang in with the high-ranked Hoyas.
“It’s always a good battle between us two,” Bennett II said. “It’ll be a tough game but it’ll be one we definitely think we can win.”
Marquette finishes the regular season 8-5-4 (2-3-4 Big East). Although Big East play didn’t go exactly as planned, Bennett looks at the post-season as a clean slate.
“I was watching the Seton Hall and St. John’s game, and (the commentators) went on a rant about how we were a sleeping giant and could beat anyone,” Bennett said. “They’re right.”
Redshirt freshman Driton Zyteja got his first playing time since early September due to a calf injury to senior Brady Wahl. It doesn’t sound like the injury will be a long term concern however.
The Georgetown match will begin at 1 pm on Tuesday. If the Golden Eagles advance, they’d play number two seed Xavier in the second round.
