There’s something about scoring quickly coming out of halftime that has served Marquette women’s soccer well on Saturday evenings at Valley Fields.
Similarly to the Golden Eagles’ Big East opening draw against Butler on Sept. 20, at the halftime whistle, Marquette found itself needing to find a spark. The difference was that the Golden Eagles were not down two goals after the first 45 minutes, but instead had a 7-1 advantage in shots and were looking to break the game open in what was a scoreless first half.
But just like two weeks ago against Butler, Marquette (6-3-3, 2-0-2 Big East) had lightning strike twice to start the second half in a 4-1 win against DePaul (3-8-1, 0-3-1 Big East).
In the snap of a finger, sophomore forward Megan Murray booted the ball towards the goal and first-year midfielder Coco Dorfman headed it off of Murray’s kick; ultimately finding the lower right corner of the net in the 46th minute.
“I’ve actually never scored a header goal in game; I’ve only scored one in practice or warm-ups,” Dorfman said. “So I was in the right spot, it was a great cross by Megan (Murray), and I just won the 50-50, which we talk a lot about.”
Barely two minutes later, Dorfman found the back of the net a second time, capitalizing off of several passes around the box, which culminated in a quick dish from senior forward Josie Bieda. Dorfman powered it past DePaul sophomore goalkeeper Maddie Iro, who started the second half in relief of junior Mason Hillery to give Marquette a 2-0 lead.
“They changed their formation and philosophy a little bit coming into it, so we did make some adjustments,” Allen said. “We really, really wanted to attack the end line, get crossing, finishing situations, creating more chaos in the box, and I think we did that incredibly well.”
The momentum stayed with the Golden Eagles throughout the rest of the contest as they kept the Blue Demons on the defensive throughout the second half. But Marquette wasn’t done adding to its lead.
A DePaul foul led to a penalty kick opportunity for sophomore Jocelyn Leigh in the 76th minute of the match, and she stepped up and buried the shot into the right corner of the net, marking a team-high six goals scored on the season. Not even five minutes later, Leigh found herself involved on another Marquette scoring play, dribbling the ball down the pitch and found junior forward Emily Fix in transition. Fix slotted the ball low to the ground and past Iro to tie the Golden Eagles’ season-high in scoring.
But it wasn’t all Golden Eagles, as an 85th minute miscue put the Blue Demons on the board, with Marquette having an own goal resulting from a clearance attempt deflecting off their backline and finding its way into the net.
With the victory, Marquette has matched its win total (6) from last season and currently sits at fourth place in the Big East standings.
Marquette resumes play against UConn (7-3-2, 3-1-1 Big East) next Saturday evening in Storrs. Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m. CST and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
