Long ball was the name of the game in last night’s
Conference-USA, Jesuit grudge match between the Saint Louis
University Billikens and Marquette’s Golden Eagles. The Bills spent
much of the night chasing down the Eagles’ defenders who
haphazardly punted the ball downfield, and hindered offensive
production on both sides. After two full regulation periods and two
ten-minute overtimes, the game ended in a 0-0 tie, putting SLU’s
record at 6-1-2 with a 1-1-1 C-USA record.
The tie culminated a rough week-long home stand, during which
the Bills lost one game and tied two.
“You’d love to leave home with three wins; but I have to be
happy with the way we played tonight. It’s hard when you have
[Marquette] pumping the ball downfield every time they touch it. It
was effective for them; but it’s certainly not attractive soccer,
not the type I ever like to play,” said coach Dan Donigan.
Throughout the game SLU controlled the ball and spent a lot of
time on the attack. The midfielders created multiple opportunities,
none of which resulted in goals.
What may have been the Bills best scoring chance came in the
opening minute of the game. Quick passes from freshman Will John
and Vedad Ibisevic led to a John DiRaimondo one-timer that was just
denied by Marquette keeper Adam Ubert.
Ibisevic supplied some of the best shots on goal. In the 70th
minute, he fired a rope directly at Ubert, who made the save. As
overtime wound to a close, Ibisevic placed a cross right in front
of Marquette’s goal that landed again just out of reach of any SLU
forwards.
Marquette focused the majority of their attack from the flanks
and created several corner kicks, all of which they were unable to
convert. Their defensive strategy keyed mainly on the long ball
with little concern for possession.
SLU averted several scares toward the end of the final overtime,
when Marquette freshman Matt Blouin barely missed a shot from in
front of goal that went just wide left and just minutes later
sailed one over the crossbar.
“The stats will say they had more shots than us, but that never
concerned me; it doesn’t speak to the way we played. Our defense
had a great game and gave up very little,” said Donigan.
Senior keeper Martin Hutton helped highlight the defensive
effort by holding onto the shutout, making for six this season.
Last night’s game brought the Golden Eagles record to 4-5-1 and
2-1-1 in C-USA play. This came after falling to conference foe UAB,
keeping them near the top of C-USA.
The first game this week was played Saturday night, where
Louisville upset SLU with a 2-0 shutout, handing the Billikens
their first loss of the season. The win marked the first ever for
the Cardinals in St. Louis and moved them to 2-0 in C-USA play.
SLU failed to score for the first time this year; but it was not
for lack of chances. In the end, they failed to convert on any of
10 shots on goal and several breakaways.
The loss ended a SLU 30 game home win-streak.
The past weeks have found the Bills in a lot of tight matches
with many of them going into overtime. Still, Donigan does not
worry about the poise of his young team, “They’re very focused and
have a great soccer mentalit,” he said.
The following games will prove very telling of SLU’s composure.
Road games against conference rivals East Carolina and DePaul serve
as prime opportunity to set the C-USA record straight.
