Marquette is off to its best start in a decade, in part due to bench production.
Despite no longer being ranked in the United Soccer Coaches’ top 25 poll, Marquette’s depth has pushed the team past rough stretches.
Senior forward Noah Madrigal is tied for the second-most goals on the team with two, but he has only started in three games. First-year forward Ryan Amond also has two goals despite only starting four times. Of the 11 Golden Eagles with a goal, only six have started in every game this season.
In September, Marquette was 6-0 and looking unstoppable. But, the Golden Eagles had just lost a game against the Creighton Bluejays, and were dangerously close to losing their second in-a-row to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers.
The reason they didn’t? Depth.
Amond scored a key goal for the Golden Eagles, allowing them to come away with a critical point in a tough environment.
“It shows a lot about us that we were able to turn around a bad performance like that. In my eyes, we played a good game against UW-Milwaukee,” junior defender Jonas Moen said. “It’s not an easy field to come to, and Marquette teams throughout history have struggled there. This shows our mental strength.”
Before the two-game road trip, Marquette had only played at Valley Fields. And it was clear being outside of Milwaukee was going to be tough.
“First time playing against Creighton, they had their homecoming weekend. It was like 5600 people there, that being a great atmosphere but a tough atmosphere,” Bebej said. “Same thing with UW-Milwaukee away. Two hard atmospheres to play at, being able to bounce back from that, being able to perform at UW-Milwaukee and Butler, that shows a lot of confidence and resilience.”
In the game against St. John’s Sept. 29, Marquette’s depth was tested with graduate student forward Christian Marquez and sophomore midfielder Mitar Mitrovic both inactive, and Amond suffered a brutal injury in the second half of the match. The Golden Eagles ended up losing that game 1–0, but continually overcame adversity.
With the Golden Eagles currently sitting at 7-2-1, their success has been a complete team effort.
“Coach has been reiterating it’s going to take everybody, whether if you’re a starter or on the bench,” Bebej said. “Everyone’s essential, when you’re asked to do your job, we know that we have people that can do it.”
Marquette travels to away games with the full team, something Amond said is nice to have.
“We have had two conference games so far, we carry everybody on the road, and it’s nice having everybody there,” Amond said. “We have a lot of guys that can play whenever they need to, and the level won’t drop.”
The win over Butler Sept. 23 marked the Golden Eagles’ first road victory since Oct. 9, 2021.
Throughout the non-conference portion of the season, graduate student forward Brooklyn Merl carried the offensive load with a .316 shooting percentage on 19 shots, but the team has learned to rely on multiple points of attack. Merl leads the team in goals scored with six, but senior forward Beto Soto leads the team in shots on goal.
“We have a lot of guys on the team that can score goals and make plays, that shows the depth and quality we have on our team,” Moen said.
The lineup is gelling as the season has gone on, something Amond feels is a good development.
“Some of the guys needed a few more games to get acclimated and get comfortable with their positions- we’ve had so many games, three away games now,” Amond said. “That’s allowing more of the team in general to contribute, rather than one or two of the guys that usually score goals.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
