The Marquette Golden Eagles lost their second game of the season Friday evening at Valley Fields, falling 1-0 against the University of Pennsylvania in overtime.
After 95 minutes of scoreless soccer, Penn freshman Alex Touche scored the deciding goal off a corner from Brandon Bartel.
“Sometimes (soccer) can be a beautifully cruel game,” head coach Louis Bennett said. “We did enough in two-thirds of the field, and in the final third we had a lot of possession, but we couldn’t break them open.”
Even though the end result for the Golden Eagles was a loss, it was not necessarily a bad performance. Although they only had one registered shot on goal, a few of the other shots were just over the crossbar or just off the mark. Marquette also had more shots than Penn.
“We played with spirit, we played with pride, we played with mobility (and) we moved the ball,” Bennett said. “It was as simple as the final third they had a lot of bodies. They committed a lot of bodies to defending.”
The loss against Penn comes off a 3-1 defeat at Saint Louis. Marquette was only able to get one goal in the last two games, compared to the seven goals they got in their first two games.
“I think people are closing us down a little better, I think they’re not committing as many players to go forward, and I think that we weren’t quite sharp today,” Bennett said. “In the final third I thought we could have had better chances.”
Defensively the Golden Eagles were sound, only allowing seven total shots. Four of those shots were on target. Defenders Josh Hancock and Patrick Seagrist have started in all games for the Golden Eagles. With those two to lean on defensively, Marquette was able to hold Penn to a goalless game until the fifth minute in extra time.
“Our defense did very well. I thought they were really coordinated, they were organized,” Bennett said. “We just gave them one too many set pieces and that was the one that broke us with the golden goal.”
The Golden Eagles look to break their two-game losing streak Monday against Michigan for their second away game of the season.
“We just have to have a short-term memory, put this one in the past — it’s behind us now — and prepare for Monday,” Luka Prpa said. “Michigan will be a tough game, and we have to be ready.”
