The men's soccer team snapped a four game losing streak with a double-overtime scoreless tie against Marquette on Saturday night, Oct.10.
The tie moves the Pirates to 1-4-2 in the Big East and 4-6-2 overall.
"Marquette is not a special team but they keep you honest," head coach Manny Schellscheidt said. "They will give anybody a run for their money."
Senior goalkeeper Paul McHenry led the way for the Hall.
He made six saves en route to his ninth career shutout.
On the offensive end, junior Andrew Welker led the Pirates with five shots in his return from serving a one-game suspension for yellow-card accumulation.
Fellow juniors Brayan Martinez, Dritan Sela, and Michael Dietze also chipped in with three shots a piece.
"I felt great coming back," Welker said. "I had a lot of energy."
Welker's return to action was especially important given the battered state of the current Pirates roster.
Martinez recently returned from an injury, while juniors Hayden Morris and Steven Rose and sophomore Joe Baker have missed significant portions of the season battling injuries.
The Hall came out strong, outshooting Marquette 5-4 in the first half.
The highlight of the half was when a cross to the middle from junior Bryan Longo to Dietze was sent to the top of the net and deflected just below the crossbar by Marquette goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski.
In the second half the Hall once again outshot the Golden Eagles in the period 13-11, finishing with an 18-15 edge.
"I thought we had enough going for us in the second half," Schellscheidt said. "At that time, if we don't get a goal, we don't get rewarded for that kind of effort. That's been the story of the way we've been playing in some games. We've been missing a little something somewhere."
Both teams failed to capitalize on chances in overtime.
The Hall, in particular, had three corner kicks in a three minute span of the first overtime.
They were all cleared by the Golden Eagle defense.
With the tie, the Pirates remained one point back of their Big East foe Marquette.
They failed to make up any ground.
"That was a big game in terms of putting them behind us," Schellscheidt said. "Eventually we need the help of someone else to keep them down."
This weekend, the team travels to Providence on Saturday to take on a Friars team that is also within reach of Seton Hall in the Big East standings.
A win in Rhode Island would propel the Pirates ahead and into fifth place in the division.
"It's very important," Welker said. "We're always looking for a win. Hopefully we can go in there and take three points and move up in the standings. We have to get a win here."
The team will then travel down to Maryland to take on the defending national champion
Terrapins in their final non-conference game of the season.
"We don't know how we're going to approach that one," Schellscheidt said. "It's a tough game and the most important games right now are the Big East games. We're not going to get too many gray hairs on that one."
The Hall finishes up the rest of the schedule in the Big East with home contests against conference powers Connecticut and Pittsburgh and finish with a match at West Virginia.
Zachary Cziryak can be reached at zachary.cziryak@student.shu.edu
