TAMPA - The University of South Florida men's soccer team took the first step in defending its BIG EAST Conference tournament championship with a 2-1 win over Marquette in the first round of this year's tournament at the USF Soccer Stadium.
The Bulls (13-3-2) now hit the road to take on Notre Dame on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST tournament. The winner of that game will advance to the tournament semifinals in Morgantown, W.Va. on Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m.
USF controlled play for the entire first half - and pretty much the whole game except for a 12-minute stretch in the second half - as it had numerous opportunities to score in the first 45 minutes.
The Bulls would put three solid shots on goal in the first 13 minutes of play forcing Marquette's goalkeeper, Matt Pyzdrowski, to make some challenging saves.
Hasani Sinclair drove down the end line getting in less than 10 yards from the goal and putting a shot on net that would be denied.
After his first shot of the night, Zak Boggs would come back and fire a laser in on goal only to have Pyzdrowski come up big again and keep the game scoreless.
Jorge Mora would eventually get the Bulls on the board first with a left-footed shot from about 13 yards out off an assist from Hasani Sinclair in the 15th minute of play.
USF didn't let up after the Mora goal as it continued to control the tempo of the match for the final 30 minutes of the half.
Mora looked to get his teammates involved serving a ball to Sinclair who would get a shot off on the left side of the goal from about five yards out that went wide.
Aubrey Perry then tried to connect with Mora with nine minutes left in the half. Mora, however, crossed the ball into the goal box where both Bernardo Anor and Boggs missed on their attempts to score.
After playing one of the best halves of soccer all season, the Bulls came out a bit sluggish in the second stanza.
The Golden Eagles tried to dictate the pace of play to start the half, however USF snapped back into it in the 57th minute when Fernando Gonzalez made a bid for his second goal of the season with a solid shot that was stopped by Pyzdrowski.
Sebastian Thuriere would then connect on what would eventually be the game-winning goal in the 77th minute. Boggs found Javed Mohammed who crossed the ball, from about 30 yards out, on the left side of the field to Thuriere who headed the ball into the back of the net.
Marquette's Adam Lysak would then score his second goal of the season - both coming against the Bulls - less than three minutes later off an assist from Chris Madsen with 10 minutes left in the contest; however the Golden Eagles could not get any closer the rest of the night.
Marquette, who ends the season 4-11-3, got six saves from goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski.
Jeff Attinella had five saves for USF.
