Aug. 29, 2003

Final Stats

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Marquette men's soccer team got its season off on a positive note, downing Denver, 2-1 in the season opener for both teams. Sophomore midfielder Blair Kohlmeyer scored both in a reserve role for MU.

Kohlmeyer's first strike came in the 66th minute. Down 1-0 after a Denver goal in the 56th minute, Kohlmeyer blasted a ball from 40 yards with his left foot to the top left corner. His second tally came in the 77th minute. Senior Derek Gutierrez misplayed a ball that went wide. The Denver defense relaxed and Kohlmeyer ran upon it for the score. The goals were Kohlmeyer's first in his career.

Marquette benefitted from the experienced play of Gutierrez. Adlard moved him from his more natural forward role to sweeper and gave a lot of players the chance to play around the 6-foot-4 senior.

"It was a good experience. Gutierrez played well as a stopper and won a lot of good balls that helped us," Adlard said. "We also had good spells at forward from (junior Chris) Lee and (freshman Matt) Blouin. It wasn't our best effort. A tie would have been fair in this situation. They were the better team until the last 20 minutes."

The match was delayed over an hour due to heavy rain in the Colorado Springs area. The playing conditions were difficult, forcing the play to be rough. Denver received one red card and, according to Adlard, Marquette was fortunate to avoid such a foul. Marquette was also fortunate to come away with a win. Denver had a chance to score an equalizing goal, but a tally was taken off the board after a Denver player was called for offsides.