The Golden Eagles open up the David Korn Era of the program with a Thursday/Sunday homestand against two East Coast programs.
And so begins the David Korn era of Marquette men’s soccer.
It’s been 18 years since the Golden Eagles had a new men’s soccer coach, and there’s upsides and downsides to that. The biggest upside is probably that you can easily argue that Marquette needed a new direction for the program, as 2023 was Louis Bennett’s first season with more wins than losses since the 2020 timeshifted campaign, and given 1) the weird COVID nature of it and 2) Marquette caught A LOT of breaks by way of the overtime rule still existing at the time, you can kind of throw it out as a sign of success. That means Bennett hadn’t had a normally scheduled fall season with a winning record since…. 2014. That one was the last year in a four year run of winning seasons that gave him just six in 18 years at Marquette.
While that’s the reason why change can be a good thing, the mere existence of the change at all can be a bad thing. There’s a couple of guys with eligibility left to go — Edrey Caceres and Beto Soto — that are somewhere else in college soccer right now. Both of them had big roles on last year’s team, and that means that Korn is getting started in Milwaukee with a little bit less than he might have hoped. The good news there is that David Korn gets a jumpstart on remolding Marquette in the direction that he wants to go a little bit faster. Look no further for evidence than the fact that he brought Tim Smith, his top scorer from last year at Maryville, with him to Wisconsin, along with Clayton Hamler, who was a freshman last year for the Saints but ended up playing big minutes for Korn.
It might be a long slog of a season for the Golden Eagles. There’s going to have to be a lot of mixing together of returning guys who played notable roles and new guys in order to put a coherent soccer product out on the field. There’s no other way to say this part of it, but no matter what, Marquette is going into the campaign without a goalie who has played a single moment of college soccer. Not D1 soccer, any collegiate soccer at all. That’s probably not a recipe for success, but it can be a good starting point for long term growth as Korn’s tenure continues.
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Match #1: vs Drexel Dragons (0-0-0)
Date: Thursday, August 22, 2024
Time: 5:30pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Flo FC
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
This is Marquette’s first ever match against Drexel.
Drexel went 9-2-5 last season, and that included a 3-2-3 record in CAA action. Their season ended in the CAA tournament quarterfinals after going to a 2-2 draw with a Delaware team that they had tied, 3-3, earlier in the season. Postseason play means that ended up going to penalty kicks, and the Blue Hens came out ahead there.
Generally speaking, that’s a perfectly acceptable Year One for head coach Mark Fetrow. It’s right on pace with what the Dragons have been for the past several years as they chase after their first NCAA bid since going back-to-back in 2012 and 2013. This year, they’re picked to finish fifth in the CAA. Drexel picked up 57 points in the preseason poll, falling three behind 4th place Elon and just one point ahead of sixth place Stony Brook.
The Dragons did get one player on the preseason all-conference team….. well, kinda. Midfielder Patrick Short isn’t on the team, he was included on the Honorable Mention list, which looks like it means that at least one person voted for him. Short led Drexel in goals a year ago with seven, and ended up second on the team in points with 15. Top point man Antonio Illuminato is no long here, and boy, is that a great name for a guy who had eight assists last season. That departure probably makes Carles Aliberch’s role a little bit bigger, as he was not that far behind Illuminato with six assists.
Alessandro Capogna returns to the Drexel roster after playing over 1,100 minutes in net last season. He allowed less than a goal per 90 minutes a year ago and stopped over 80% of shots on frame. The Dragons went 5-1-5 when he got the decision a year ago, so it seems like they could have used a little extra firepower in those matches given how few goals Capogna was allowing in his net.
Match #2: vs Marist Red Foxes (0-0-0)
Date: Sunday, August 25, 2024
Time: 2pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Flo FC
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
This is Marquette’s first ever match against Marist.
The Red Foxes went 6-8-3 last season, and that came with a 4-4-2 mark in MAAC action. Their season came to a halt in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament, as they took a 3-1 road loss to Rider after losing to the Broncs 2-1 at home the week previous. That was the first losing season for Marist since 2017
Marist is picked to finish fifth in the MAAC this season. They seem to have landed in a middling spot in the poll of 13 teams, as they’re 20 points behind #4 Siena and 13 points in front of #6 Quinnipiac. There’s a bright spot in the whole thing, as they finished well in front of #7 Fairfield, who has 85 points and also one first place vote. Have fun squaring that in your head, everyone!
Richard Morel is Marist’s leading returning scorer, and the only one who tallied more than 10 points last season. He tied for the team high in goals with five and chipped in an assist to get to 11. The Red Foxes do return Skyler Cunha and Adam Rustami, who both tied with departed points leader Jared Juleau for the team led in assists last year with three. Obviously, Marist will need all three to step it up a bit to improve on last season, but that’s a pretty good starting point for your offense.
Having known quantities on offense is especially good when you’re starting over in the net. Luca Bulfon played every minute last season, but he was a grad student and now he’s on to other things. Marist has four goalkeepers on the roster right now, and I’d imagine that the leader to start is Jamie Lowell, a 6’4” grad student. Lowell played over 2,100 minutes in 25 appearances in four seasons for Maryland, recording a career goals-against average of 1.16 and a save percentage of .689. I suspect that he doesn’t go to Marist without a promise to start, but head coach Matt Viggiano has to make his own call as things go along. The only other choices on the roster are two freshmen and a sophomore who didn’t play last year, so Lowell’s got the experience if nothing else.