The University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team (8-7-0, 1-2-0) played a smarter brand of soccer in beating instate rival Marquette (6-6-1, 3-1-1) by a score of 2-1 Wednesday night. Freshman Matthew Jelacic had the game-winning goal in his first start this season while veteran captains Watson V. Prather and Erol Goknur made their returns from injury.
The big question heading into the game: How would the Badgers do without their leading scorer? Jed Hohlbein was relegated to watch the game from the bench while serving his penalty for receiving a red card in the team’s last match.
Both starting forwards for UW came up big when the pressure was on them. Phil Doeh scored the match’s first goal unassisted at 7:57 by heading the ball over the charging Marquette goalie. Jelacic’s goal came just four minutes later.
“I got a ball … and flicked it onto Nick (Van Sicklen) because I saw him running around and he just gave me a perfect ball right in the middle and I kicked it right in,” said Jelacic about his first collegiate goal.
The match started rough for Marquette. Not only was the team down 2-0 just 12 minutes in, it received its first red card at 23:34. The call was an enigma to those watching the game, but it appeared that the Marquette player took a UW player down from behind.
The referee made his presence felt right from the get-go, issuing four yellow cards and two reds. Two of the yellows were for language or dissent, not for physical fouls. MU’s second red card came with only 27 seconds left in the match as the referee felt a Marquette player backed into him on purpose, sending him to the ground.
“I think everyone was a little surprised. I think the referee’s interpretation of the language rule may be a little different than what the teams’ perspective on that rule is,” UW head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “I was just afraid we were going to get a guy tossed for that; fortunately we kept our head a little bit and didn’t get an ejection. [The head referee] definitely exercised the rule to the letter of the law as apposed to the spirit. I was a little surprised, to be honest with you, but I’ve been surprised by referees’ decisions before, so I know it won’t be the last time.”
Marquette scored at 34:13 to narrow the gap before halftime, but that would be the end of goal scoring for both sides.
The Badgers finally got Watson V. Prather back on defense after sitting out with an ankle injury since Sept. 24.
“Five games, it’s good to be back, man,” Prather said. “The ankle’s still a little sore, but I love the game and I can only stay out so long. It was great to be back, and great to get a win when I got back. I felt pretty comfortable; for an ankle injury, once the pain’s gone it’s more of a mind thing. You’re sort of a little reluctant to go hard into tackles but once you get that first good tackle you get your touch back and everything sort of comes back naturally.”
Junior goalie Eric Hanson was glad to see Prather back as well.
“It was good to see [Prather] back there again,” said Hanson. “It was kind of weird playing with him though because I haven’t played with him in a couple weeks. We were a little rusty on our communication and whatnot, but hopefully he’ll stay healthy; that’ll be big for us.”
Despite the 2-1 win, the UW players felt they could have played better.
“I thought we were a little fortunate to be up a man in this game,” said Rohrman. “I don’t think it was a great performance on our part by any means. If you look at the stats, I don’t think we took advantage of being a man up and playing like a team that should’ve been in more control of this game. Having said that, I think we did a good job in creating those two goals … As I told the guys, we’re going to have to play much better. … Sunday against Michigan, there’s no doubt about it. We’re happy about the win, but at the same time we didn’t perform as well as we should, or we’re capable of.”
“We obviously didn’t play very well, which I don’t know; a lot of guys had tests. I had a test and had to come right to the field, so I was 100 percent mentally into it,” said Hanson. “But we came out and got a win somehow, which is the important thing. I think we kind of got lulled in knowing that we were a man up and were dominating them pretty good. Their goal came against the flow of play; they had chances but really they were that dangerous, so I think we kind of just got lackadaisical.”
