Oct. 20, 2006

Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - In less than ideal conditions and playing a man down, senior Meghan Connelly's golden goal in the 22 seconds into overtime was all the Marquette women's soccer team needed to defeat Syracuse, 1-0, Friday evening at SU Soccer Stadium. Marquette was forced to play a man down for over 65 minutes when junior goalkeeper Laura Boyer was issued a red card for a handball outside of the box.

With the win, the Golden Eagles improve to 9-5-4 overall and 6-3-1 in BIG EAST play, while Syracuse falls to 3-12-3 overall and 2-7-1 in the BIG EAST and out of conference tournament contention. Marquette is still in a fight with Connecticut and St. John's for a first round bye and a chance to host a BIG EAST quarterfinal match next Sunday due to all three teams winning their respective games Friday night.

"It is hard to put into words how proud we are of these players, they gave everything and were rewarded with the win," explained head coach Markus Roeders. "We played very discipline throughout the game and our attacking mentality set the tone for our success. The players never wavered from their 'belief' to win this game. From every player that stepped onto the field to the group on the sideline, they all deserve credit for the win. This mentality has been established over some time and we brought it out during the game tonight."

Boyer was called for a hand ball out of the box and issued a red card in the 24th minute that ejected her for the rest of the game forcing Marquette to play with 10 players. The Golden Eagles were limited to nine field players and used sophomore Christy Smith in goal for the remainder of the game. Before Boyer was ejected, she made one save.

"The red card to Laura did not set us back and actually gave us extra energy," said Roeders. "We looked to attack and created numerous opportunities throughout the game. Zoomy, Christy Smith, replaced Laura in fine fashion, it shows that we have a deep team and any player can be the difference marker at any point."

After the red card was issued Marquette used it as motivation and played an aggressive relentless offense, firing off 10 shots in the first half, and tight defense limiting the Orange to only one shot in the remaining 21 minutes in the first.

The Golden Eagles continued its aggressive attack in the second half firing off six more shots, three of them on goal and held Syracuse to two shots on goal, and five shots overall for the second stanza. Smith made two saves for the game.

With neither team being able to convert any of its shots into goal in 90 minutes of regulation, the game was sent to overtime.

In overtime, Syracuse was awarded the kickoff, but quickly lost control of the ball. Junior forward Allison Mallams was able to gain control of the ball and broke down the midfield where she dished it off to Connelly on the right side. Connelly moved forward and launched a shot the swooped in to the upper left corner out of reach for Syracuse keeper Eliza Bennett-Hattan.

"It was just an incredible performance by our team tonight. We came into the game concerned about the weather conditions due to the heavy rain over the past 24 hours but our team responded well from the start," added Roeders. "The goal by Meghan was superb; after we won the ball in midfield by Mallams and she dribbled at their back line, she laid it off to Connelly, who finished it on a great far post shot. We give Syracuse a lot of credit because the game was a great battle but it was difficult beat us tonight. "

Marquette will face St. John's on Sunday, at Noon CT in the regular season finale. Live stats and live audio will be available via St. John's website www.redstormsports.com.