After suffering a setback on Wednesday to Xavier, Marquette men’s soccer took care of business Saturday night defeating the Creighton Blue Jays 3-1 at Morrison Stadium.
“I’m so happy for our guys. I thought we played really well, and it keeps us in the hunt,” Marquette head coach Louis Bennett said in a statement. “We escaped the first 10 minutes, managing to keep our head above water, then slowly but surely we started chipping away. I thought we went through a 30-minute stretch in the first half of playing some of the best soccer we’ve played in a while.”
The win marks just the second time this season that the Golden Eagles have won on the road.
In what was a fast paced affair, Marquette came out striking recording five shots in the first 20 minutes.
In the 25th minute, redshirt junior forward Lukas Sunneson made a move on a Creighton defender in the box and fired one through the five hole to put Marquette up first. First-year midfielder Edrey Caceres had the assist.
Then four minutes later, the Golden Eagles doubled their lead when redshirt first-year forward Beto Soto headed home redshirt sophomore forward Christian Marquez’s pass into the upper left corner of the net.
Four minutes before halftime, redshirt sophomore defender Harvey Read was booked for a handball inside the box giving the Blue Jays an opportunity to cut the deficit in half.
And Creighton did just that as senior midfielder Daniel Espelete converted the penalty shot to make the score 2-1.
Marquette went into halftime with a lead for just the fourth time this season.
The Golden Eagles began the second half right where they left off.
30 seconds into the half, Sunneson turned on the jets and found the back of the net for the second time in the match.
This time the Sweden, native’s goal came in stride from the top of the box as it bounced off the right post and rolled in. Redshirt junior midfielder Zyan Andrade had the assist.
In the 49th minute, first-year midfielder Jackson Castro was removed from the match after being charged for a red card for throwing an elbow into the jaw of Marquette redshirt sophomore defender Alex Mirsberger.
With Castro’s removal from the match, Creighton was forced to play 11v10 for the remaining 41 minutes.
In the 70th minute, Caceres recorded his third shot of the match on a free kick outside of the box but it was saved by Creighton senior goalkeeper Paul Krause.
Creighton kept attacking in hopes of finding the back of the net over the course of the remaining 20 minutes but Marquette’s defense held ground leading to the 3-1 victory.
Sunneson led the way for Marquette on the night with a team high six shots, four of which were on net, and two goals.
“Lukas Sunesson was our man of the match, that was probably one of the finest games he’s played for us,” Bennett said in the statement. “A lot of players played really well, but he was exceptional. His second goal really put some distance between us.”
Redshirt junior goalkeeper Chandler Hallwood finished with five saves on the night while allowing a lone goal.
Marquette (5-5-1, 2-2-1 BIG EAST) will now travel to Storrs, Connecticut to round out the two-game road trip against UConn Wednesday at 6 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Aidan Hatton. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @AidanTHatton.
