Just under two minutes into Sunday afternoon’s contest at Valley Fields, Chicago State’s Owen Santos snapped a shot at the Marquette net. Keeper Cameron Simpson had to parry and secure a shot at relatively close range, no diving for it or anything, but it was coming in with velocity, and so the match continued with a goal. It was the first action of the season for Simpson, who played sparingly as a freshman last year.
Y’know that old boxing adage about some fighters don’t really get going until they see their own blood? Yeah, that might have been the Golden Eagles here. A shade under six minutes later, Joey Buchanan and Grant Locker made the passes to set up Mitchell Dryden for this goal, which turned out to be the game winner 82 minutes later:
That was the first shot of the game for Marquette, a game where they ended up outshooting Chicago State 24-4, including 12-1 after halftime. It’s possible that the quick shot at Simpson woke Marquette up or at the very least jolted them into a little bit higher gear.
The goals continued. In the 32nd minute, Buchanan got his second assist of the match as he and Kyle Bebej teamed up to feed Nico Pendleton:
You didn’t even see Buchanan kick that one, as he was the guy launching the ball deep down the field to Bebej.
Marquette added one more before the half, and guess who put his head on a corner kick? Hell yeah, it was Joey Buchanan, recording his first career goal:
Shots were 12-3 at the break, and it’s worth noting that Simpson had to make another save before intermission even though Marquette was doing a pretty good job of keeping things simple for him in general. MU got one more on the board after halftime, as Hudson Torrez sent home a Gabriel Miranda pass:
Chicago State had just one shot for the entire 45 minutes, but it was on goal so Simpson did have to stop it. You kinda don’t want to have to make three saves in a match where you only allow four shots, but that’s what happened, and the sophomore was up to the task here. That’s why Marquette’s 2-0-2 on the year right now.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+, including all of Simpson’s saves alongside the goals?
UP NEXT: Marquette will be off until Saturday when they welcome Wisconsin to the Valley for the continuation of that in-state series. First kick is set for 7pm Central time on September 6th, and the match will be streamed on the athletic department’s YouTube page. The Badgers are 2-1-0 this season after opening with a 1-0 loss to that North Florida team that Marquette beat and then coming out ahead against Bradley and Western Michigan. They’ll host Portland at McClimon Soccer Complex on Monday night before they head east for Saturday’s contest.
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