Marquette sent Seton Hall home still without a win on the season, but not in the commanding fashion you might expect. The Golden Eagles won 1-0 thanks to a David Selvaggi goal in the 52nd minute, but were outshot by the Pirates. Keeper Wicho Barraza was forced to make six saves.
Marquette head coach Louis Bennett said the way the game played out was partially by design, since they wanted to avoid the shootout that occurred in last year’s 3-3 showdown. He added that he and his staff may have over-coached the team a bit for this game, but they still managed to not give the Pirates many serious scoring chances.
“(Seton Hall) had one very good opportunity – I’m not sure if it was a cross or a miss hit – that (Barraza) had and made a great save,” Bennett said. “The rest of them, I thought they were good saves, but they were what we’d expect him to do.”
Selvaggi’s goal came at the end of a long possession for the Golden Eagles. Redshirt senior C. Nortey passed to Selvaggi, who was making a run down the center of the pitch. He fired a shot that Seton Hall keeper Brandon Barnes got a piece of, but not enough to stop it from bouncing into the bottom left corner. The goal was his fourth of the season.
“We’ve been working on the runs like that,” Selvaggi said. “I took C.’s position, he played a great ball for me, and I just got a great look at it and finished it away.”
He was taken out of the game after he went in for a hard tackle in the 60th minute, but he says he is feeling fine. Bennett said he’s just a little sore, and the staff wanted to make sure he’d be good to go for Marquette’s next game.
The clean sheet is Barraza’s second in a row and fourth of the season.
“I think I’m doing the necessary things that the coaches ask for,” Barraza said. “I’m very comfortable with my performance.”
The Golden Eagles now enter the toughest test of their season, playing the four highest ranked teams in the BIG EAST in a five-game stretch. No. 12 Georgetown is next on the docket Wednesday before the team faces No. 1 Creighton next Saturday. No. 24 Xavier and No. 21 Butler are both on this month’s schedule as well.
