After dropping its second Big East match of the season, the Marquette men’s soccer team found itself back in the points column with a 3-3 draw against the Providence Friars Saturday afternoon.
“This was the second-straight game we started with five freshmen in the lineup and a couple of players having to play out of position because of injuries, and it’s the second game that we’ve played extremely well in parts of the game,” Marquette head coach Louis Bennett said in a statement.
“We really battled, and I’m really proud of our guys. This has never been an easy place to play, and we managed to get a point. I’m hugely proud of the fight, and we got a lot of groundwork down here,” Bennett went on to say.
The Golden Eagles started off the game strong offensively, as the lads continuously applied pressure on the Friars’ defense with recording three shots in the first 15 minutes of action.
And unlike Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Villanova, Marquette was able to capitalize on opportunities down the stretch in the first half.
In the 43rd minute, the Golden Eagles received a penalty kick opportunity after a Friars defender was called for a handball inside the box.
Senior forward Lukas Sunesson collected his fifth goal of the season as he fired the shot into the back of the net to send Marquette into halftime leading 1-0. Sunesson is now 4-for-4 on penalty kick opportunities this season.
Following halftime, the Friars came out with more of a presence of putting more pressure on the Marquette backline.
Providence remained at bay until the 60th minute when a Friar corner kick deflected off first-year defender Kyle Bebej into the net producing an own goal. It tied the game at 1-1.
Few minutes after the Marquette mishap, junior forward Beto Soto responded with a goal of his own to put the Golden Eagles ahead 2-1. The goal was Soto’s second of the season.
The wild scoring in the second half didn’t stop there as the Friars pulled even in the 75th minute when senior midfielder Esben Wolf put a header past Marquette first-year goalkeeper Ludvig Malberg.
Graduate student forward Gil Santos handed Providence its first lead of the match, 3-2, in the 83rd minute off a shot from the top of the 18-yard box.
The Golden Eagles, who were already playing without senior midfielder Alex Mirsberger after he received a red card Wednesday, went a man down in the 88th minute when first-year defender Tristian Ronnestad-Stevens was booked a red card for unsporting behavior.
However, that didn’t frazzle the Golden Eagles. As time winded down in the final minute, from 30 yards out, sophomore midfielder Edrey Caceres took advantage of an open net opportunity to tie the match at 3-3.
Malberg finished with six saves on the afternoon while allowing three goals in his fourth start of the season.
The Friars outshot the Golden Eagles 16-15 on the afternoon and maintained a 8-7 advantage on corner kicks.
Marquette (4-6-2, 0-2-2 Big East) will return home to host Seton Hall Wednesday at 7 p.m. CST at Valley Fields.
This article was written by Ava Mares. She can reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @avamaresMU.
