Coming off a loss Monday against the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Marquette men’s soccer team returned home to Valley Fields to host the Yale looking to get back in the win column.
However the Bulldogs had other plans, as the Golden Eagles fell shot 3-2 in what was a battle of penalty kicks.
“I’m really disappointed. I’m disappointed for the guys,” head coach Louis Bennet said. “The past two games we’ve had a lot of the ball and we’ve had opportunities and today was just a little frustrating. We gave them two penalties and we earned the two penalties. It’s a harsh way to learn by losing a game, but it was disappointing.”
The game-winning goal came in the 85th minute when the Bulldogs were awarded a penalty kick after Marquette senior goalkeeper Chandler Hallwood was booked with a red card for punching a Yale player.
First-year goalkeeper Ludvig Målberg replaced Hallwood in net and was unable to keep Paolo Caroll’s shot out of net.
“I’m disappointed,” Bennett said of Hallwood’s ejection. “I don’t know why (he did it), it’s probably a retaliation. I really don’t have much to say until I see it on film. I’m disappointed either way.”
The first half saw the lone non-penalty kick score of the contest, when senior Sigfus Arnason put one past Hallwood in the seventh minute.
Yale would head into halftime leading 1-0 as neither side would find the back of the night in the remaining 38 minutes of the half.
Marquette came out with a different energy in the second half. Bennett said he spoke to his team at halftime in what needed to be changed if they wanted to get back into the game.
“Their strikers were getting a lot of the ball so we just changed formation slightly,” Bennett said. “They were causing us a lot of trouble and and being able to break any kind of pressure. So we cleaned that up and we had a lot of momentum in the first 20 (minutes) in the second half.”
In the 47th minute, the Golden Eagles were awarded a penalty kick in the box after a Bulldog handball. Senior forward Lukas Sunesson took the shot and evened the score at 1-1 with his third goal of the season.
Marquette seemed to find its rhythm, recording four shots in the first nine minutes of the half. But Yale didn’t take its foot off the gas pedal either.
Eleven minutes later after Sunesson’s goal, Yale jumped back ahead on penalty kick after Marquette’s Tristan Rønnestad-Stevens was booked for a foul.
While Hallwood guessed the right direction on Kahveh Zahiorleslam’s shot, the England native was unable to save it.
Sunesson beat Yale senior goalkeeper Elian Haddock for the second time in the 80th minute on another penalty kick.
“There wasn’t a time during the game I thought we were going to lose,” Bennett said. “Thought we had a chance to tie or win it. In losing it, it’s disappointing.”
It looked like Marquette was earning a draw after Sunesson’s first multi-goal performance of the season but Carroll sent the Bulldogs back to Connecticut on a high note.
“For us to finish off games and win games maybe we have to have a little better game management,” Bennett said. “I’m not blaming our guys. There is a lot of pride in the way our guys keep bouncing back and fighting back. We kept the crowd here and I think they got to be proud of what we do here.”
Marquette (3-3) will face cross-town University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Tuesday at 7 p.m. CST at Valley Fields.
“We’ve got another two non conference games, we want to finish our non conference season in the in plus. Right now we’re .500,” Bennett said. “And we want to finish in the plus so that we can bring the plus data into the Big East and make sure that we’re one of the stronger teams in the Big East. That will give us experience and momentum to start the Big East season.”
This article was written by Catherine Fink. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CatherineFinkMU.
