Northwest’s Five-Game Win Streak Snapped In Loss To Unbeaten Marquette

CEDAR HILL – After finally finding its footing late in September, the Northwest High boys soccer team suffered its first loss of the month of October, Tuesday night at the Mustang Soccer Field, in a 2-0 defeat at the hands of visiting Suburban West Conference rival Marquette High of Chesterfield.

“In soccer, anytime you’re playing a team as skilled as those guys, you’ve got to capitalize on your opportunities,” Northwest head coach Dave Willis said. “And we had a couple of opportunities early, and if we put those in, who knows how it might turn out.”

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the loss that ended a five-game winning streak for the Lions, whose victories during that stretch included thrilling wins over powerhouse clubs Eureka and Mehlville.

“We’ve definitely been playing better lately,” Willis said. “Earlier in the year, we kind of had a rough patch, but we got through it, and I think we’re a better team because of it.”

Even in the loss to Marquette, which is now 16-0-2 this season and one of only two remaining unbeaten teams left in the St. Louis area (Priory), Willis said Tuesday’s game was clear evidence the Lions’ soccer program has vastly improved.

“In years past, we’d come into this game against Marquette hoping to not get (embarrassed),” he said. “This time, there wasn’t that feeling at all. We only worried about what we thought we needed to do to beat them. That’s a big change for us.”

But it was also clear that Northwest wasn’t quite ready to pull off what would have been one of the biggest upsets of the season, had they won.

Marquette controlled the ball most of the match, and peppered the Lion defense with numerous scoring chances, finally breaking through when sophomore striker Keith Grieshaber banged home his 19th goal of the season to give the Mustangs the lead.

“We built our whole defense around stopping (Grieshaber), and he got through anyway,” Willis said. “He’s a talented kid.”

Grieshaber added another goal, his 20th of the season, early in the second half, to give Marquette a 2-0 lead, which senior goalkeeper Mark Goldstein made stand up, despite heavy pressure from Northwest in the final minutes.

Northwest junior Gino Bono had two sensational chances left in the second half, that Goldstein managed to stop, while Lion sophomore Alex McGlassion had the chance of the night when he broke in up the left flank with about eight minutes left in the game.

McGlassion fired a point-blank shot that seemed sure to wind up in the back of Marquette’s net, but Goldstein somehow got a hand on it and knocked it away, preserving his seventh shutout win of the season.

“We’re going with several freshmen and sophomores in the lineup, so we’re very young,” Willis said. “We lost our best player (Bono) to an injury for a couple of games, and it was almost (a blessing) because it meant some of our younger guys had to step up to the challenge and play better.”

With the loss to Marquette, Northwest is now 9-9 on the season, but it will get the chance to improve on that mark with two home games this weekend.

On Friday, the Lions will host Jackson (MO) High at the Lions Soccer Field, at 6:30 p.m.

Then on Saturday, Northwest will host Cape Girardeau Central, also at the Lion Soccer Field, with the opening kickoff set for 12:30 p.m. 

Scoring Summary

Score by Halves

F

Marquette

1

1

2

Northwest

0

0

0

First Half

M: Keith Grieshaber (19)

Second Half

M: Keith Grieshaber (20)