Abdoul Karim Pare made quite the impact off the bench Friday night, sealing his first multi-goals performance with two second half scores in Marquette men’s soccer’s 3-0 win over the University of Michigan at Valley Fields.
“It was a good game,” Pare said. “Obviously, it was Michigan who is a good thing and we knew we had to come out strong, hard and listen to what the coach said. And it paid off at the end.”
Marquette head coach Louis Bennett said he thought his team played very well against Michigan overall.
“We decided at halftime that we would reiterate what we wanted to do so that they would have to change and not us, and I thought they did fantastic in the second half,” Bennett said. “When we got a little fatigued, we made some substitutions and the substitutes did a really good job.”
Marquette improves it record to 3-1 and earned its second straight clean sheet of the season.
There were plenty of opportunities for the Golden Eagles to score in the first half, as they outshot the Wolverines 10-2 but Marquette couldn’t take advantage of them.
Bennett said he was very pleased with his team’s defense in the first half, as Marquette held Michigan to just two shots in the first 45 minutes of action.
“It was an 11 man defense,” Bennett said. “We knew we were going to press them up top and we wanted to keep the field real tight so there was a lot of defense between them and the goal. And they did it really well.”
The second half would be a different story for the Golden Eagles offensively.
Pare started a barrage of three goals in a 14-minute span for Marquette. After Pare’s first goal, senior defender Alex Mirsberger followed with a goal four minutes later off a corner kick from Edrey Caceres. Pare’s second goal allowed the Golden Eagles to jump to a 3-0 lead.
Much like his team, Pare said he made adjustments at halftime which resulted in his performance in the final 45 minutes.
“In the first half, I wasn’t shooting a lot so when we went into the locker room my friends told me to shoot a lot and I listened to them,” Pare said. “So in the second (half) first thing I did was just shoot and it worked out for me.”
The Ivory Coast native now has three goals on the season, which is tied for first on the team behind Zyan Andrade.
Senior goalkeeper Chandler Hallwood finished with three saves on nine shots faced on the night.
For the second straight game the Birds Nest, also known as the student section at Valley Fields, was packed with students.
“It was great,” Bennett said of seeing his team celebrate with the students in singing fashion after the win. “First we gave them the best gift, which was a win and someone to cheer about and they stayed to the end. Secondly, we taught them that one song and next time we will teach them another.”
Marquette (3-1) will now travel to Madison to take on in-state rival Wisconsin Monday at 7 pm CST.
“Yes I know it is an in-state rivalry, one of the most significant, red versus the blues. This will be a game that I am sure Wisconsin is up for it and we will be playing on their turf,” Bennett said. “But we’re still a valuable member of the State of Wisconsin so it’s not all their turf so we’ll try to give everything we have to get a victory.”
This article was written by John Leuzzi. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JohnLeuzziMU.
