The Golden Eagles are looking to shake off a scoring drought as they visit the Wildcats to start Big East play.
Well, let’s just say it.
Marquette men’s soccer hasn’t scored a goal against a Division 1 opponent since the 66th minute of their 2-1 loss to Wisconsin on September 2nd.
Marquette hasn’t scored a standard issue soccer goal against a Division 1 opponent since the 21st minute of their 1-0 win at Yale on August 30th.
0-0 draw with Purdue Fort Wayne, 0-1 loss to #9 Northwestern, 2-0 loss to Illinois-Chicago. Three straight shutouts against Division 1 foes, and I’d be lying if I said that getting just one goal on only 10 shots against Division 3 Edgewood was making anyone feel better about the entire situation. Was first year head coach David Korn playing a little Lineup Laboratory in that match? Sure, but when that kind of offensive output is mixed into a more wide-ranging struggle, that’s not a great sign.
Right now, those eight goals against Drexel and Marist in the first two matches of the season are waaaaaay off in the rear view mirror. The Golden Eagles need to figure out what is short circuiting their potency right now and find a solution to it. It’s time for Big East play now, with just the Milwaukee Cup left in the future as a non-conference match on the schedule, and what happens in these eight league matches are going to go a long way towards determining whether or not Korn’s first year in charge is a success or not.
Is the solution as simple as “Mitchell Dryden needs to be healthy?” He had three of those eight early season goals but hasn’t scored since. He played a season low 51 minutes against Illinois-Chicago after sitting out the Edgewood match completely. We can’t even say that MU could rely on their other three goal man so far this season, as Justin Milovanov will be sitting this one out after taking on two yellow cards against the Flames last time out.
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Big East Match #1: at Villanova Wildcats (0-3-3)
Date: Friday, September 20, 2024
Time: 3pm Central
Location: Higgins Soccer Complex, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
Marquette is 3-6-1 all time against Villanova. Yes, that’s not very many times. Part of that is because the two teams only played once between when Marquette joined the Big East and when The Reformation changed the membership to just 10 teams because of divisional play in the interim. Another part of that is because they didn’t play in the timeshifted spring season in 2021, and they didn’t play last year as the Big East went to divisional play due to the addition of Akron as an affiliate member. Marquette hasn’t beaten Villanova since a 1-0 victory in 2019, while Villanova picked up 1-0 wins in both 2021 and 2022 in the last two meetings.
I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised that the Wildcats are winless to start the season. They were picked to finish last in the East Division of the Big East this season, and there’s nothing about 0-3-3 that says “well, that’s not going to happen.” Their worst loss of the year is a 5-1 shelling on the road against Western Michigan back on September 2nd, and that one was a case of goals wouldn’t stop going in. The match was 2-0 WMU at the 75 minute mark and the Broncos knocked in three in less than four minutes with VU’s lone strike of the match mixed in there. Three total goals in just over 120 seconds, in fact. That’s wild!
It’s not like Villanova’s struggling out there. Shots are essentially even while VU’s -6 in goal differential. Their opponents are doing a little bit better at putting shots on frame, but it’s not like 38% of shots ending up on goal is a bad number or something.
All eight of VU’s goals so far this year have been split evenly between four guys. Jorge Garcia (no, not that one) and Vincent Petrera both have added an assist to their goals to tie for the team lead in points with five each. Jason Bouregy is leading the team in shots to this point of the year but he hasn’t put one in the net yet. He’s got three assists, which is helpful, but he’s still looking for a breakthrough.
Freshman Alex Yadudayev has played all of the last two matches in net for Villanova, so I presume that we’ll see him again here. The Wildcats don’t really have a great option in net, at least statistically speaking. Both Yadudayev and Sebastian Cutler DeJesus are at two goals allowed per 90 minutes or worse, and neither man is doing better than 66% in terms of save percentage. That’s a rough way to live when you’re basically even in shots with the other team.