Marquette men’s soccer is 4-0 for the first time since 2012.

The Golden Eagles (4-0) used an own goal scored by the Crimson (0-1-1) in the 31st minute to soar to a 1-0 victory Monday afternoon at Valley Fields.

“This whole non-conference season, the goal is to get better every game and find out more about ourselves,” Marquette head coach Louis Bennett said. “Now, for this one (game) we actually found out that we can not play fantastic and still manage to win a game.” 

Statistical leaders

Senior midfielder Edrey Caceres led the Golden Eagles with three shots, putting two of them on target.

Sophomore goalkeeper Ludvig Malberg tallied two saves in the afternoon, enough to earn his third shutout in a row.

For Harvard, senior defender Nik White and junior defender Jan Riecke were the only two Crimson players to land a shot on goal, each contributing one a piece.   

Threatening early

Marquette had a couple close chances early on in the first 45 minutes of play, but not much to show for it on the scoreboard. 

Marquette’s first quality scoring opportunity came in the 21st minute when graduate student forward Brooklyn Merl fired a shot towards the upper left corner of the net, but it was deflected out by Harvard sophomore goalkeeper Lucian Wood.

Ten minutes later, senior forward Beto Soto found the corner of the field before sending a cross into the box that hit off of a Harvard defender and went into the back of the net resulting in an own goal.

“You gotta have to win ugly if you wanna be successful,” Bennett said. “We’re gonna have to win when things don’t go perfect.”

Defensively strong

By giving up zero goals, the Golden Eagles posted their third consecutive clean sheet this season.

“In past seasons we’ve scored over 30 goals and not been a successful team because we couldn’t keep clean sheets,” Bennett said. “Now we’re keeping clean sheets. Ludvig (Malberg) has a lot to do with it, but the three center backs have done exceptionally well.”

Malberg said the clean sheets show more about his teammates than him.

“When 11 guys are on the pitch and everyone defends, just look at us today, we were running around like animals, just fending for each other and that’s what I love,” Malberg said.

Tough conditions

It was a toasty 92 degrees at kick-off, conditions that Malberg thought affected the way the game was played.

“There were a lot more subs, a lot more guys playing,” Malberg said. “It was a little bit less intense and more long balls”.

Bennett said he thought his team handled the heat as best it could.

“The guys that were in went for as long as they could and we could tell by their body language that they needed an out and we brought them out,” Bennett said.

Up Next

Marquette will play University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (1-2) Sept. 8 at Valley Fields. Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m CST. 

This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can reached at [email protected] or on X @MatthewBaltzMU.