Men’s Soccer Unloads On Marist To Stay Perfect

Every time I turned around, the Golden Eagles were scoring against the Red Foxes again.

Sweet Christmas, that was an asskicking.

Apparently, at least. I wasn’t watching live as Marquette men’s soccer took on Marist at Valley Fields on a hot Sunday afternoon, but I was paying attention to live stats. The goals just kept. On. Coming. From the Golden Eagles as they staked themselves to a 2-0 lead at intermission and then tacked on four more after halftime for a 6-1 smashing of the Red Foxes. The lopsided win moves Marquette to 2-0-0 after the first weekend of the 2024 season.

Let’s do some highlights, huh?

Jack Wandschneider scored his first career goal before the clock hit 7:00 off this slick corner header.

Justin Milovanov scored his first Marquette goal in the 27th minute, and this one would eventually turn into the game winner. “Stay active and stay aware” was the name of the game here, and that would come up again later.

It would come up in the second half, as Mitar Mitrovic scored Marquette’s only unassisted goal of the match in the 52nd minute by being ready when a situation presented itself.

That put Marquette up 3-0, and it ended MU’s run of unanswered goals this season at five straight. More accurately, Skyler Cunha’s penalty kick strike in the 55th minute broke up the Marquette run to start the year.

That made it 3-1, and apparently Mitchell Dryden took that penalty kick goal personally, or at least the slightly questionable handball call on Kyle Bebej as he made a sliding play to break up the Marist attack close to the end line. In any case, the final 23 minutes of the match belonged to Dryden as he scored in the 68th and 90th minutes, and then assisted on Lucas Nesthus’ goal in the 85th.

I can’t help but wonder if head coach David Korn’s favorite part about this onslaught of goals is that Marquette posted eight assists on the day, and they did that on five goals, as the Mitrovic tally was the only unassisted goal of the day.

Hey, let’s not forget about Marten Brink! Yes, the MU defense (or perhaps the offense!) did him some favors by limiting Marist to just seven shots all afternoon, but Brink had to step up a little bit. Three of the Red Foxes’ shots needed a save from the freshman from Germany, and his defense in front of him picked up a fourth stop on a team save in the 62nd minute, too. He’s yet to allow a run of play goal in two matches so far this season, and he came real close to stretching out his 6’7” frame far enough to stop the penalty kick from going in, too.

Up Next: Marquette continues their season with two road jaunts over Labor Day weekend. They’ll face Yale in Connecticut for a 5pm Central time start on Friday, August 30th, and then go a bit west on I-94 on Monday for a 7pm start against Wisconsin. Friday’s match will be the season opener for the Bulldogs, while the Badgers are 2-0-0 after picking up identical 4-0 wins over the exact same two teams that Marquette beat this weekend.