Men's Lacrosse: #16 Marquette 12, Detroit 6

On Friday afternoon in Louisville, Marquette men's lacrosse had seven different players find the back of the net as they exploded out to a 7-0 lead in the first 20 minutes against Detroit.  The Titans would outscore Marquette the rest of the way, but it was already too much for them, as MU held on to win 12-6.

It's the fourth straight win to start the season for the nationally ranked Golden Eagles, and their first win by more than one goal.  The win is the third in three seasons against Detroit, and the first on a neutral field.

Marquette finished the first quarter with a 4-0 lead after Conor Gately, Jordan Greenfield, Kyle Whitlow, and Andy DeMichiei all found the back of the net and Jimmy Danaher made five saves to keep Detroit off the board.  The Marquette scoring continued in the second period with Ryan McNamara starting things off and then Kyran Clarke and Pat Townsend recording their first goals of the season.  MU almost made it to halftime with the clean sheet, but Shayne Adams had the first of two goals on the afternoon to break the drought for the Titans with just 36 seconds left.  Greenfield provided some last second theatrics by pushing the lead back to seven goals right before time expired.

Detroit head coach Chris Kolon must have fired off a snazzy halftime speech, because his Titans came out of the locker room with a fury.  They fired three goals past Danaher in the first five minutes of the third quarter, and all of a sudden, Marquette was reeling and only leading 8-4.  Job #1: stopping Detroit, which Marquette did, keeping them out of the net for the next nine minutes and change.  Job #2: slapping some gauze on that gash that Detroit had put in their lead.  Gately was the first responder on the scene, and Joe Dunn provided some advanced care, which pushed the lead to 10-4.

Detroit would get the last goal of the third and the first goal of the fourth quarter to throw a little bit of doubt into the proceedings.  But Adams' second of the game would be the last goal that Detroit would score.  Gately closed out his hat trick with just over five minutes left, and just over 30 seconds later, Ryan McNamara ended the scoring for the day to provide MU with some cushion.

Gately's three goals were tops of anyone on the day, although Greenfield matched him in points with two goals and an assist.  Adams broke Detroit's all time points record with his second goal of the game, and his scoring extended his points streak to 50 straight games.  Danaher made seven total saves to preserve the win for the Golden Eagles, and Jacob Richard had a Marquette record nine ground balls in the contest, accounting for nearly a third of the game's total for the Golden Eagles.

Up Next: It's the first quick turnaround for Marquette, as they'll play Ohio State on Sunday afternoon at noon Central.  The Buckeyes are 4-1 on the season after squeaking past Bellarmine yesterday in the second game of the Midwest Classic Lacrosse Weekend.  OSU actually lead 8-5 with seven minutes left, but Bellarmine scored twice late, including with 12 seconds left, to throw a scare into the Buckeyes.