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It’s just one game against just one opponent, but you have to be fairly enthused about the 2017 campaign for Marquette men’s lacrosse after their season opener on Saturday. The Golden Eagles went down to Florida and held Jacksonville scoreless for 47 minutes before wrapping the game up with a 17-1 victory over the Dolphins.
That is BANANAS. You could make the argument that Marquette had a legitimate shot at shutting JU out, but head coach Joe Amplo lifted starting goalie Cole Blazer after the end of the third quarter and was heavily relying on the deepest parts of his bench after that point. 14 different Golden Eagles found the back of the net in the game with no one scoring more than two goals and eight of MU’s goals were the first markers of the shooter’s collegiate career.
Perhaps most impressive about the offensive performance is that Jacksonville kept Ryan McNamara off the board. Marquette’s all time goals leader started 2017 with a 50 goal lead over MU’s next best active scorer, but he didn’t find the back of the net here. McNamara did assist on three of Marquette’s four goals in the third quarter, though, moving him to within 21 points of Conor Gately’s career points record.
The defensive side of things was the biggest question mark on Marquette’s season after losing three All-Americans from last year’s corps. MU held Jacksonville to just 19 shots in the entire game, with six of those coming after Amplo had taken his foot off the gas. The Golden Eagles induced 18 turnovers out of the Dolphins with Marquette getting credit for directly causing 11 of them. MU also won the ground ball battle easily, 35-16, with Noah Richard (five) and Zachary Melillo (four) leading the way. Blazer made seven saves in his 45 minutes to keep his goals-against average and save percentage perfect heading into week two.
No highlight package this time around, so feel free to watch Dylan Dobrowsky get schmancy to score MU’s 15th goal of the game midway through the fourth quarter on a loop.
Watch as freshman Dylan Dobrosky goes behind-the-back for his first collegiate goal at Jacksonville. #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/MEqxAWXBBi
— Marquette Lacrosse (@MarquetteMLax) February 19, 2017
Up Next: As is tradition in lacrosse, the Golden Eagles are off until next Saturday. They’ll be back out on the road again and facing another SoCon opponent. It should be a strong test of their skills when they visit Virginia to take on Richmond. The Spiders are 2-0 on the season, including a win over a ranked Fairfield team in their opener.