Just saying, real coincidental timing on those lightning strikes.
The order of events on Saturday at Valley Fields seems suspicious enough to be a conspiracy against the Golden Eagles, that’s all I’m saying.
Marquette men’s soccer seems to have control of the match early, then Providence holds the Golden Eagles without a shot for the final 25 minutes of the first half for a scoreless tie at the break.
Then Providence scores 91 seconds into the second half and the referees immediately call for a lightning delay. Now, I’m not saying there wasn’t lightning in the area, there definitely was.
What’s a better way to kill time than to watch Aidan’s goal pic.twitter.com/Eq1TG5mLBB
— Providence M Soccer (@PCFriarsMSoccer) October 12, 2024
And so, the match is delayed until Milwaukee can go without a lightning strike within a certain distance of the Valley for 30 minutes….. which meant that this contest that started at 1pm didn’t restart until 4pm. The lightning had subsided, but the rain definitely did not. As play resumed in the sometimes pouring rain, Providence attempted the first shot….. and then the Golden Eagles grabbed control of the match.
Now, I suspect a lot of this was Providence deciding that they were up 1-0 and in an occasional monsoon and didn’t want to make a literal slip-up that cost them the lead. But for a good long while, the action essentially didn’t leave Marquette’s offensive end of the field as MU kept the pressure up and fired off five different shots. They were pretty good ones too, as PC keeper Lukas Burns had to make three saves to keep Marquette scoreless.
At the 72:45 mark, shortly after a yellow card had been issued to Providence, it was clear that another weather delay was required. The play-by-play man on FloSports had mentioned seeing lightning in the distance and apparently it got close enough to campus. That was at 4:43pm, and at 5:10, the match was officially declared completed. The rulebook says any match that goes past the 70 minute mark can be marked as official if it needs to be halted, and that’s what happened here.
I was sitting at home at 5:29pm when I found out it was wrapped up, and there was still very obvious lightning and thunder in the area, about a 15 minute drive from Marquette and the Valley. Can’t blame anyone for the circumstances, other than Thor, the Norse god of lightning, but we have to point out that MU missed out on 17 minutes of trying to find an equalizer at the very least.
Up Next: Marquette still sits in second place in the Midwest Division and also inside the cutline for the conference tournament even after the loss, so that’s the good news. Even better news: Marquette’s going to get nothing but chances to stay in front of their Midwest brethren. Their next chance comes next Saturday, when they head down to Cincinnati to tangle with Xavier in a 6pm Central time start. The Musketeers are 4-5-4 overall this season and 1-2-1 in Big East play after falling 1-0 at home to Creighton on Saturday.