It’s rivalry week for the men’s soccer team as they hit the road to take on Marquette.

After dropping a 1-0 overtime decision against No. 16 Creighton, the Badgers feel as if they have to win this physical rivalry game.

“It’s always exciting to play a rival in state such as Marquette and Milwaukee,” senior midfielder Jon Rzepka said. “It’s a big game because obviously we need a win. It’s going to be physical. It’s going to be hard playing away, [but] I’m looking forward to it.”

“They have a nice field, the atmosphere is going to be great. It’s exciting for me, I know the team is excited too especially just to try and get back in the winning column.”

While their defense proved to still be rock solid against Creighton — forcing the game into overtime — Wisconsin is focusing on getting the ball rolling and finding the back of their opponent’s net.

Through seven games the squad has only tallied four goals. Keeping in mind their defensive principles, the Badgers are focusing on getting more players down into the offensive third and finally connecting with the back of the net.

“We’ve kind of become a really good defensive team and have got our principles down and we can figure out how exactly we’re going to play defensively,” junior midfielder Austin Spohn said. “We can kind of sacrifice the ends and allow them to push up so we can get that goal.”

“We’ve been kind of doing everything right as far as possessing the ball and attacking, we just haven’t gotten that goal. Hopefully getting the numbers up will definitely help.”

Focusing on scoring some goals the Badgers know they’re in for a fight with the Golden Eagles. In their first mid-week game of the season, the competition Marquette will bring isn’t the only tough part of the game.

For the young Badger squad this will be the first time they have to go on the road, or even play a game, in the middle of the week between school and other upcoming exams.

“Road games in the middle of the week when you have school and exams and all that coming up is a little tougher,” Spohn said. “You have to go to class before you hit the road and it makes it a little bit harder, but we expect to win this game.”

“None of our freshman have ever played in a mid-week game,” head coach John Trask said. “They’re going to be getting out of class, going on a bus, playing on a Tuesday night — sometimes that’s a great thing, sometimes when they’re able to just concentrate on the weekend on their soccer, it’s just a different vibe that you have and it’ll be a new experience. I told the guys that we’re expecting another very good performance out of them.”

With expectations of winning in mind, the Badgers still expect a physical game from the Golden Eagles.

Marquette has also been rebuilding its program over the last few seasons and are on a two game unbeaten streak sitting at 2-3-2 on the season.

“They’re an edgy program,” Rzepka said. “They’re trying to have a good season and perform well. Every time we play a rival game it’s going to be really intense and physical. There’s a lot of seniors on their team too that are just trying to go out strong. It’s going to be a tough game — it always is — we just have to be ready to play a physical game while playing our own game.”