The Marquette Golden Eagles started the season on a high note with a 3-1 win against Valparaiso Saturday afternoon at Valley Fields.
“We had adjustments to make, and we had a few growing pains, but we managed to do enough in larger sections of the game to look like ourselves,” Marquette head coach Louis Bennett said. “I thought we did a good enough job to win.”
Freshman Lukas Sunesson was the star of the game, scoring a brace in his first appearance in a Marquette jersey. His first goal came in the 53rd minute.
“The first one came after Luka (Prpa) did a great job in the middle. He dribbled through a couple of guys and got the ball in behind,” said Sunneson. Then I’m one-on-one against the goalkeeper, and it has to be a goal.”
The native of Sweden had four total shots, three of the attempts were on target. His last goal was the final nail in the coffin, scoring in the 84th minute.
“He did his job. His job is to threaten the defense as often as he can and to run behind (the defense),” Bennett said. “There’s still an acclimation period — his getting his legs and his coordinates in the way that we play — but I thought he did very well and I thought he could have had a hat trick.”
The Golden Eagles dominated the first five minutes of the game. They had four shots in the first four minutes. The fourth shot led to a Connor Alba goal. Alba headed the ball, which went off the keeper’s hands and into the side of the net. The assist came from a beautiful cross by Luka Prpa.
“We’ve done a lot of work in the final third of not being frivolous,” Bennett said. “We like to keep possession, but you don’t beat teams just by keeping possession. There is no such thing as death by possession. If your going to kill a team off, you’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net.”
In the first half, Marquette was defensively sound, not allowing Valparaiso a single shot on target. The back line was not as impressive in the second half though. Valparaiso had four out of 13 shots on target in the last 45 minutes. Daniel Moreno scored their lone goal in the 66th minute.
“I think (some of the factors were) a little bit of fatigue and a little bit we changed the personnel but I think the crucial number of that (is there was four on target in the second half and none in the first). I’m not so much worried about the ones that are off target.”
Marquette looks to continue their success forward in their next game against Central Arkansas on August 30 at 7:05 p.m.
“Valpo can win games and we are going to take that notch and we going to move on with it,” Bennett said. “Central Arkansas have a couple of very good players and they are a good team.”
