Leading up to their bout Friday night, there were only two men’s soccer teams in the Big East yet to capture a win, Marquette and DePaul.
Thanks to four players’ contributions on the scoresheet and a firm defensive effort, the Golden Eagles (7-5-2, 1-5-0) claimed a 4-1 home victory and left the Blue Demons (2-7-6, 0-5-1) alone in that winless category.
Given its unbeaten non-conference record, Marquette head coach David Korn believed his players deserved much more from this year’s Big East slate.
“I’m just so proud for the guys to get rewarded,” Korn said. “They certainly deserved the win.”
Within the opening quarter of the game, the Golden Eagles controlled nearly all of the possession leading up to a decisive pentaly call in the 17th minute.
When Mads Konrad Horgoien was thrown down in the 16-yard box, Nico Pendleton stepped up to the spot and converted, giving the Golden Eagles an advantage from which they would never look back.
“I think everyone today came out with some sort of fire,” said Pendleton. “I think we just wanted to keep that up.”
Despite DePaul’s best efforts to equalize after that initial goal, the Golden Eagles defense stood strong, holding the Blue Demons to a single shot on target going into halftime. Throughout the rest of the match, it remained a story of if DePaul could stop Marquette from commanding the game, an effort which ended in vain.
Horgoien directed a close-up shot into the back of the net to double the lead in the 53rd minute, followed later in the half by Mateo Stoka from a Pendleton assist, and Joey Buchanan assisted by Ryan Amond with nine minutes to play.
Despite a conceded penalty in the closing minutes of the match, the second half effort from Marquette’s back three and goalkeeping enabled the offense to have the attacking platform they did.
“We had to do a really good job defensively managing their intensity,” said Korn, “and I thought our response was tremendous.”
While everyone wearing the blue & gold wishes the monkey came off their back sooner, a winless conference record was gone at the blow of the full time whistle.
With only two matches remaining in the 2025 campaign, the Golden Eagles look to build on their conference momentum when they travel next Saturday to play No. 23 Akron at 5:00 P.M. CST on ESPN+.
This article was written by Eamon Bevan. He can be reached at eamon.bevan@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @EamonBevanMU.