The University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team won their fourth game in a row to start the season, the best start in head coach Neil Jones’ career with the Badgers and the first 4-0-0 start to the season since 2002.
In each of his previous two seasons, Jones led the Badgers to six wins, and a four-win start shows that this year the Badgers are once again Big Ten title contenders.
The most recent win was the most memorable. A ‘Monday Night Football’ theme set the stage for the Badgers to host their fiercest rivals, the Marquette Golden Eagles. Including this matchup, the Badgers have defeated the Golden Eagles 12 times, with five draws and only seven losses since 1995.
The match started aggressively, with Marquette committing two fouls in the first 40 seconds, a trend that continued throughout the 90 minutes.
The first major opportunity in the match for the Badgers came in the 16th minute when senior forward Kevin Andrews played a ball right into the path of freshman midfielder Julian Kuhr, whose shot narrowly missed the left post.
Just before halftime, the Badgers knocked on the door of Marquette’s goal again, this time thanks to junior forward Thomas Raimbault, who spun around two defenders and sent a ball through to sophomore forward Markie Hrvojevic. Hrvojevic put in a good cross, but Marquette goalkeeper Marten Brink managed to punch it away before any Badger could pounce on it.
Both teams entered the break in a 0-0 deadlock, but Marquette struck first in the second half with the help of a penalty tucked calmly into the bottom-right corner by Marquette midfielder Mitar Mitrovic.
The Badgers continued to push for an equalizer, which they found only five minutes later through the freshman duo of midfielder Matthew Zachemski and forward Dean Boltz. Boltz fired a shot on goal from outside of the box which Brink saved, but only into the path of Zachemski for his second goal of the season.
The Badgers weren’t content to let the game end in a draw and pressed the Golden Eagles until they broke with only four minutes to go when a ball from Boltz hit the back of the net for the seventh time this season.
A shot by Andrews deflected high into the air and midfielder Noah Glorioso rose higher than the four Marquette defenders around him to head the ball into a space where only Boltz could capitalize, and capitalize he did. He struck the ball on the first bounce, passing right under Brink’s right arm and settling in the back of the net.
The referee did have to consult the assistant referee and check the ever-feared VAR monitor, but Boltz timed his run to perfection and added to his rapidly growing number of goals this season.
The run of good results didn’t go unnoticed in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, whose No. 10 ranking puts the Badgers inside the top 10 for the first time since 2017. The Badgers were also ranked No. 2 in the North region, which includes most teams from the Big Ten, excluding Rutgers and Penn State.
The Badgers have put up some impressive stats to start the season off. Incredibly, Boltz is the top scorer in the country with seven goals in only four games and No. 6 in the country in total assists with three, while the Badgers as a whole are No. 3 in the country in goals scored with 15.
This season is just getting underway for the Badgers as they play a tough away game against the No. 16 Kentucky Wildcats on Sept. 6 before conference play begins on Sept. 13 against the Maryland Terrapins.
Last season in Big Ten play, the Badgers fought to finish the regular season at 2-2-4 in conference play, but with the additions of two new Big Ten programs — UCLA and the University of Washington — on the schedule, this season could prove to be even tougher.
UCLA currently sits at No. 6 in the rankings, but the Badgers will have the advantage of playing the Bruins in front of the home fans for their second conference game on Sept. 16.
The same can’t be said for the other Big Ten newcomer, as the Badgers will have to travel to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies on Sept. 27. The other conference away games this season will pit the Badgers against the Michigan State Spartans on Oct. 11, the No. 12 Northwestern Wildcats on Oct. 15 and the Penn State Nittany Lions on Oct. 26.
The Badgers also have a full slate of home matches still to come. They will host the Viterbo V-Hawks on Sept. 21, the Indiana Hoosiers on Oct. 1, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Oct. 4, the No. 20 Ohio State Buckeyes on Oct. 19 and the final game of the regular season against the Michigan Wolverines on Nov. 3.
Don’t miss out on what could be a historic season at UW and support the team as they look to make deep runs into the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments this year.
