Men's Soccer Wins Twice In Spring Outing

April 1, 2006

CHICAGO - The Marquette men's soccer team had its offense explode for eight goals in two exhibition games at the Loyola Soccer Complex in Chicago.

Marquette played its first game against the Carthage College Club team and picked up a 7-1 victory. After a 10 minute break, the Golden Eagles went out and recorded a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Loyola.

Against Carthage, Marquette went up 1-0 by halftime on a goal by Nick Kay. MU exploded in the second half with six goals to pull out the win. Matt Blouin scored three times against Carthage and Rob Walton connected twice. A scorer a week ago against Bradley, Aleksandar Bjelic picked up his second goal of the spring season with a strike against Carthage.

After just 10 minutes of break time between games, Marquette returned to action against Loyola. The Ramblers had a break after defeating Carthage 2-1 in the first game of the day.

"It was important that we scored a lot of goals by design today and not individual plays of brilliance," head coach Bennett said. "The things we've worked on in practice are starting to bear their fruit. Even though we were fatigued, we were able to create the same types of opportunities in the second game that we did in the first."

Marquette went down 1-0, but responded with goals from Duncan Silvert-Noftle and Walton to take the victory in the second game.

"This game showed a lot of character," Bennett added. "They are starting to understand the system. It's the first time that we started to look dangerous down the field."

The defense allowed two goals over the 130 minutes of play and improved over last week's performance at Bradley.

"The one goal we gave up in the first game came on an out-of-the-blue, unpredictable shot," Bennett said. "We had a couple of mental errors today, but not as many as the week before. We still see that we have a lot of work to do, but we are improving."

The Golden Eagles battled fatigue through the match. With just 15 players, MU had little chance to make substitutions and some players played the duration.

"Matt Soper came out and played all 130 minutes on his 22nd birthday," Bennett said. "He fought through cramping and had a remarkable day. I would be proud of the effort if I was him."

Bennett was pleased with the play of all members of next year's senior class.

"Our seniors are definitely developing into leaders," Bennett said. "Matt Soper, Nathan Sabich, Rob Walton, Bryan Dahlquist and Matt Blouin are definitely turning into leaders. They have bought into the system."

Marquette plays its next spring contest on Sunday, April 23 at Valley Fields.