At first, they came by rarely, but now they’ve come consecutively.

After starting the season off with several shorthanded, comeback nail-biters, Marquette men’s soccer has gotten into a groove of commanding, clinical victories — its latest coming Saturday evening over Lipscomb, 1-0.

This marks two straight victories for the Golden Eagles, and two straight clean sheets — a more than welcome sight for the program after three chaotic matches to start the campaign.

“We really felt like a second or third goal was probably deserved,” Marquette head coach David Korn said, “[The players] were focused throughout the 90 minutes, and that’s what’s really important.”

Climbing to a 3-0-2 record, this affair was the third total clean sheet of the Golden Eagles’ season, who had sophomore goalkeeper Marten Brink between the sticks again for his fourth start and second shutout of the year.

“On a night where maybe we didn’t have the finishing touch we wanted, I think it’s really important we kept a clean sheet,” Korn said.

Ample, Apparent Aggression

Its tactical calling card so far this season, Marquette controlled the flow of the match and a significant portion of the game’s possession, something that Korn and his players pride themselves on securing.

“I thought we started the game really well that way [possessing],” Korn said. “Their press was difficult, but I thought our guys found great solutions.”

This style ultimately produced a winning goal in the 20th minute through junior forward Mitchell Dryden, but even after he slotted home for his team-leading third goal of the season, the Golden Eagles kept that switch flipped.

While Lipscomb did its best to keep the game physical and end-to-end, Marquette made it an entirely different affair when the 50-minute mark passed.

While they weren’t able to convert another chance, the Golden Eagles outshot the Bison 16-4 in the second half, inspiring a handful of last-ditch stops from the Bison defense.

“We realized that we were the better team tonight,” Dryden said, “and [the game-plan] was just to keep going after them, regardless of what happened throughout the game.”

The Golden Eagles have outshot their opponents 47-12 during their two-game winning streak.

Conference play around the corner

With five home games and no losses to start the season, Marquette is set to start conference play on the road next Friday against the team that ended its 2024 campaign, the Creighton Bluejays.

The game will be available on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. CST.

This article was written by Eamon Bevan. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @EamonBevanMU.