Second Half Goal Lifts Pitt Over Marquette

Oct. 5, 2008

INDIANOLA, Pa. -- The Marquette University men's soccer team dropped its second straight 1-0 decision, as Pittsburgh's Andy Kalas netted the game-winner 10 minutes into the second half Sunday to defeat the Golden Eagles at Founders Field

"Every game for us now becomes hugely important for us to get points," said MU head coach Louis Bennett. "This was definitely three points we lost. We'll do our due diligence focusing on the performance rather than the end result. The end result will come, if we perform well. But we're moving forward. We just can't put two pieces of the game together, offense and defense, and that's something that we need to do."

In the 55th minute, Calum Mallace was whistled for a foul for going over the back of a Panther defender to win a header near the middle of the field. The foul set up a free kick for Pittsburgh, which Kalas headed into the back of the net

"The second half, our defensive unit did very well," said Bennett. "The one major opportunity came from a set piece. We knew going in that [set pieces] is where they would be really dangerous. We misplaced a guy running into the box for the goal, but we basically handled a lot of was Pittsburgh brought."

Although there were not an overwhelming amount of scoring opportunities for either team, both squad's had great chances early in the match. Pittsburgh's first strike came in the first minute off a corner kick that was headed on target, leading to one of three saves by Marquette goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski.

Later in the half, Mallace defeated two Pittsburgh defenders and rocketed a shot from approximately 30 yards in the 25th minute that sailed inches over the cross bar, toward the back post.

Mallace attempted four of the Golden Eagles' nine shots, a collegiate high, but only Anthony Colaizzi and Hector Navarro recorded shots on goal for MU. Pittsburgh managed 11 shots total, four of which were on goal.

Navarro had a great chance at the equalizer when he picked a loose ball in the 82nd minute near the right corner of the box, but the shot was directly at Pittsburgh goalkeeper Jordan Marks, who recorded two saves.

A Marquette free kick in the closing seconds led to another shot by Mallace that was blocked in the the box and re-directed out of bounds. But the Golden Eagles could not get lucky on the corner kick that ensued.

"What was disappointing was that we weren't able to capitalize on their defensive errors," Bennett said. "We didn't really get any quality serves or quality looks on goal consistently until the last 10 minutes when we were chasing the game. Throughout various stages of the game, I thought we had some chances that we could have done better with. We just can't seem to find that finishing touch."

With the victory, Pittsburgh ended a three-game losing streak since defeating No. 20 Rutgers and improved to 6-4-1 (2-3-0 BIG EAST) on the season. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles fall to 2-5-3 overall and 1-4-1 in league play. Sunday marked MU's third loss of the season decided by a single goal.

Marquette will be back in action next weekend when the Golden Eagles play host to Seton Hall at Valley Fields on Saturday, Oct. 11. Kick off against the Pirates is slated for 7:05 p.m.