Sept. 10, 2006

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MILWAUKEE - A goal by senior Matt Blouin put Marquette up in the second half against no. 21 USF, but the Bulls scored twice in just over two minutes late in the second half to steal a 2-1 win at Valley Fields.

Blouin's goal came in the 60th minute. He started a counter attack at USF by handling a turnover near midfield. After advancing forward, he looked wide left to find senior Rob Walton. Blouin's pass was returned to Walton, who found the goal scorer running at the USF net. Blouin had one defender to beat and did so with a perfectly located strike. The goal ended a two match scoreless streak for Marquette.

Marquette (1-4-1, 0-2) held the lead for 12 minutes before USF (4-2, 2-0) -- the team favored to win the BIG EAST Red Division -- mounted a quick comeback with two superb offensive efforts. USF knotted the match in the 73rd minute on a goal by Jordan Seabrook. Seabrook's took possession of the ball in the USF half and ran past the MU defense. After finding himself deep in the Marquette end, Seabrook launched a 17-yard shot that looped just under the crossbar and into the net. MU keeper Marc Dettmann had little chance to stop the perfect attack.

"We can see the winds of change coming," head coach Louis Bennett said of his team having the lead against nationally ranked USF. "We don't take any consolation in losing, but we had some positives today until they broke it open with individualistic effort."

Two minutes and five seconds later, Hermann Trophy candidate Rodrigo Hidalgo claimed the lead for the Bulls on another well-placed goal. USF's Kevon Neaves placed a shot that was blocked. Neaves quickly collected the loose ball and centered it Hidalgo who placed a sharp one-timer to the upper right corner.

"The flow changed and we lost focus on what we should have been doing," Bennett said. "We wanted to keep them attacking from the outside and both of their goals came from up the middle. When they have guys with the ability that they have, they are going to finish if you give them a chance."

Marquette had been creative much of the half and continued that despite being down, 2-1. Freshman Michael Greene had a nice run off a feed from Walton that led to a one-on-one situation, but Greene couldn't get a good foot on the strike. That type of attacking continued and Marquette continued to be dangerous, but USF was able to hold off MU and held on to the win.

"Until we scored, I thought we put together a style and exuberance that was dangerous," Bennett said. "You are not going to get a lot of good chances against a team like that."

The loss overshadows what was a good all-around effort for the Golden Eagles, minus the two goal scoring minutes for the Bulls. MU controlled the ball much of the game and limited Bulls chances for most of the game.

"The first half was probably our best 45 minutes of the season defensively," Bennett said. "We took care of business. We had a game plan and we kept it for 45 minutes."

Marquette played two different goalkeepers in the contest. Freshman Matt Pyzdrowski, who had played every minute coming into the game, started and senior Marc Dettmann came in to play the second half. Dettmann was scheduled to be the season starter, but a dislocated finger kept him from participating. Pyzdrowski had performed well, according to Bennett, and did nothing to force the change. Each keeper made one save in the match.

"We wanted to give some experience to Marc," Bennett said. "At any time, you can lose a keeper and we felt he needed to get some game experience."

Marquette returns to action when it battles for the Milwaukee Cup on Wednesday, September 13 in a visit to Wis.-Milwaukee at 7 p.m. at Englemann Field.