Men' Soccer Hosts Drake in Home Opener
9/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
St. Francis (Pa.) visits to conclude home stand
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MILWAUKEE ? Coming off a successful opening weekend against nationally ranked opponents, the Marquette men?s soccer team opens up the home portion of its schedule taking on Drake and St. Francis (Pa.) in its home opening weekend. Marquette hosts Drake on Friday, September 9 at 7 p.m. and tangles with St. Francis (Pa.) on Sunday, September 11 at 1 p.m. Both matches are at Valley Fields. The two matches are part of a tournament that is co-hosted by DePaul. St. Francis and Drake will play the Blue Demons on Friday and Sunday respectively.
"We're pleased to put on this event in conjunction with DePaul," head coach Steve Adlard said. "We are very happy with the opponents we have coming in to town."
Marquette has had recent success in home openers. The Golden Eagles have won three of its last four home openers, with its only loss in that stretch coming last season to no. 4 Saint Louis.
Marquette and Drake have a recent history, meeting two of the last five seasons, including a 2-0 win by Marquette in Des Moines last season.
Drake, a 8-9-1 team a year ago and 4-4-1 in the extremely tough Missouri Valley, started the season with a tough 0-1-1 mark. Drake earned a hard-fought draw with Wis.-Milwaukee, 3-3. After taking 1-0 and 2-1 leads, the Bulldogs had to fight back to force the tie. Senior midfielder Jessie Baker scored twice against UWM. He is the Bulldog?s leading returning scorer, scoring three times last year. Drake then fell to Wisconsin, 2-1 in overtime. Offense hasn?t been a problem for the Bulldogs early in 2005, but defense seemingly has been.
"We're very concerned with Drake because of their frustrating loss to Wisconsin," Adlard said. "They are definitely going to want to make amends out our expense. We have to be mindful of the fact that they can play very well."
St. Francis (Pa.) starts the season 0-2 and takes on DePaul before visiting Marquette. The Red Flash are familiar with the midwest, having played their first two games in close proximity. St. Francis lost at Northern Illinois, 2-1, and lost at nationally ranked Northwestern, 1-0. The Northwestern contest took two overtimes as the Red Flash showed its defensive ability.
St. Francis? only goal of the season comes from its leading returning scorer, junior forward Scott Thompson. Thompson had five goals and three assists last season. Senior goalkeeper Bobby Pipech has 11 saves on the year. Marquette and St. Francis have a connection in MU assistant coach Barry Bimbi. Bimbi was a 1994 graduate of St. Francis and assisted with the team for six seasons following graduation.
"Bringing in Barry Bimbi's alma mater is going to be a special moment for him," Adlard said. "There's going to be a lot of emotion surrounding that which makes it a critical game for us."
Marquette is coming off a weekend in which it went 1-1 against two nationally ranked teams.
"We have gotten off to a good start and we don't want to do anything that will change that fact," Adlard said.
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