Photo by Austin Anderson

Morgan Proffitt’s cross set up Meegan Johnston’s second goal of the game.

Two first half goals for Marquette, two second half goals for their opponents, and a game winner for the home team in the 84^th minute – stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Marquette women’s soccer won the Marquette Invitational with a pair of victories in that exact fashion.

The second 3-2 win of the weekend for Marquette, a Sunday afternoon match against Cal State University-Northridge was secured by an 84^th minute goal by Darian Powell.

“I hate winning like this, we’ve got to stop doing that,” Meegan Johnston said.

Johnston kick-started the Marquette offense with a pair of early goals.

Her long cross in the fifth minute floated toward the goal and over the keeper to give Marquette the lead. In the 12^th minute, she launched a powerful header from 16 yards out via a Morgan Proffitt cross to double the lead.

“Starting out being up 2-0 was a great score,” Marquette head coach Markus Roeders said. “I think it really showed how well we played in the second half.

CSUN answered back in the second half, controlling possession in the second frame after only getting a single shot off in the first.

Kourtney Kutscher knocked in a 57^th minute goal on an assist from Lindsay Kutscher. Camille Watson evened the score with a strong, curling attempt from 20 yards out which Maddy Henry could do nothing about.

“They definitely raised their intensity level at the beginning of the second half and I think we had some struggles with that,” Roeders said. “I don’t know if we just didn’t quite expect it but that’s something that we will learn from this game.”

“We kind of sat in and let them come at us and that is not what we need to do,” Proffitt said.

Powell played just 37 minutes as she continues to work her way back from an injury, but the senior striker was in at crunch time.

Madison Dunker delivered the ball into the box from a long distance free kick. When the ball fell to Powell’s feet from eight yards out she smashed it home.

It was another game that required Marquette to dig deep and it made their coach proud.

“This group is a great group,” Roeders said. “They’re very resilient. They showed great character and fight. They really don’t lose their cool.”

The Golden Eagles enter conference play on a two game win streak, which improved their record to 4-4-2.

Marquette kicks off the BIG EAST season next Sunday at Creighton (5-1-2).