Xavier University Athletics
Xavier University
Evansville
XU Plays To Scoreless Tie On The Road Verse Evansville
09.17.10 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 17, 2010
Box Score
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Xavier men’s soccer team settled for its second tie of the season after playing 110 minutes of scoreless soccer against Evansville Friday night at Arad McCutchan Stadium.
It was the second shut out of the season for the Musketeers who moved to 0-2-2 on the season. Evansville goes to 4-1-1 on the year. It also marked the third time in 26 all-time matches that both teams played to a tie.
“Our best all around regular season effort to date,” head coach Andy Fleming said. “Although to the casual observer its a draw, we shut out one of the nation’s prolific offsenses in one of the toughest places to play in the Midwest. In doing so, we exceeded last years shutout and away from home point totals and above all, had a consumate team effort."
The nation’s 30th ranked defense held Evansville, the nation's third highest scoring offense, scoreless for the first time this season, who scored 18 goals over their first five contests. The Purple Aces took plenty of cracks at scoring, but a tight defense limited quality shots. The first shot on goal by Evansville was not recorded the 78th minute of the game on its 17th shot.
Evansville came out of the gate fast, recording eight of the first nine shots, but the Musketeers’ defense remained solid throughout. In the end the Purple Aces would out shot the Musketeers 24-6 and held the corner kick advantage 12-3.
“I'd like to commend the backline, Sean Ryan, Nick Hagglund and James Getzen for gutsy two way efforts, but the man of the match was Justin Marshall who was fantastic.”
Marshall, who returned for the first time since sustaining an injury in the final minutes of a 1-0 loss to Butler on Sept. 4, stopped four shots on goal en route to his third-career shutout.
Both teams had chances late in regulation and in the overtime periods. None more close than Nick Hagglund’s header in the 107th minute, which would have scored had Evansville goalkeeper Phil Boerger not made a diving save.
“We managed to weather a few storms early on and showed great strides in our ability to defend set pieces, allbeit against a team with great size,” Fleming said. “If Hagglund’s bid in the final minute of extra time is four inches the other way, its three points for us."
Friday’s game marked the second time the Musketeers have played extra minutes this season, and the second consecutive road game which required additional periods to be played. They opened the season on Sept. 1 with 0-0 tie at Marshall. It also marked the fourth time in as many games this season that the Musketeers defense didn’t allow a first-half goal.
The draw pushed Xavier’s combined opponent’s record to 16-2-3, and includes two nationally ranked teams.
“I'm not sure if there's a winless goaless team who is more positive as we are,” Fleming said. “Our next four game stanza features three home games and if we stay stingy defensively, I'm confident we will begin to score goals and continue to gain momentum as we get healthy and head into conference play.”
The Musketeers return home to begin a three-game homestand, which starts at 7 p.m. next Friday against Lipscomb. Xavier will face Cincinnati on the Sept. 29 and conclude with Alabama A&M on Oct. 2.
