Oct. 1, 2003

Final Stats

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ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Seventh-ranked Saint Louis and Marquette played a scoreless tie tonight in a Conference USA men's soccer match before 1,448 fans at Robert R. Hermann Stadium. Billiken goalkeeper Martin Hutton made six saves, while Golden Eagles keeper Adam Ubert responded with five stops.

"It was a hard fought game," head coach Steve Adlard said. " I thought we did quite well at times. We had some near misses, but their keeper also did quite well."

In a scoreless first half, Saint Louis almost scored on its first possession. After one touch passes by SLU freshmen forwards Will John and Vedad Ibisevic, Marquette keeper Adam Ubert dived to his left to stop John DiRaimondo's 12-yard one-timer. Ubert also came up big again in the 38th minute on Billiken midfielder Kyle Hopson's volley off a SLU corner.

Marquette had the best of the chances in the opening half as SLU keeper Martin Hutton made a pair of outstanding saves against Golden Eagles forward Chris Lee in the 18th minute and midfielder Tony Walby in the 26th minute. In the 35th minute, Marquette forward Derek Gutierrez's bid from eight yards off a cross sailed wide of the left post, and SLU's Hutton had to be alert on Walby's knuckling 35-yard blast. MU out-shot the Billikens 8-4 in the opening stanza and had a 5-2 edge on corners.

Substituting liberally in the second half more so than in recent matches, the Billikens began to exert more pressure as the game wore on. Again early in the half, the Bills had a great opportunity when midfielder Casey Spiess drove a six-yard header off a corner into the turf in front of the MU goal, but the shot bounced over the cross bar. Ibisevic had a pair of chances, but sent a 12-yard drive high in the 68th minute and a 12-yard header just wide of the right post off defender Mo Benne's serve.

Marquette's Ubert was positioned perfectly on SLU midfielder Ryan Wileman's deflection of an Andy Pusateri serve in the 80th minute, and defender Dan Guffey's header of a corner in the 89th minute drifted just wide of the left post. SLU's Hutton made a sterling save on Darby's 15-yard one-timer off a corner in the 70th minute.

Each side had one good chance in the overtime. Ibisevic sent a dangerous cross sizzling across the front of the MU goal that Alex Matteson couldn't quite run on to. Eagles forward Matt Blouin had a 20-yard shot off the right flank sail over the cross bar.

"We put them under pressure and our defense was magnificent," Adlard added. "Maybe a tie was OK. To a man, there was superb effort. They are learning that is what it takes to be successful."

Marquette has proven that it can play with the top teams in the nation. The Golden Eagles are 0-1-1 against teams in the top 10, coming up just short in its last outing, losing to then seventh-ranked UAB, 3-2 last Saturday.

The Golden Eagles return home on Saturday, Oct. 4 as they take on Memphis at 7 p.m. at Valley Fields.