Marquette Men’s Lacrosse Holds On For A Win Against Georgetown

Marquette men’s lacrosse got outscored 10-6 by Georgetown over the final 40 minutes in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, but luckily for Joe Amplo’s crew, they were already up 5-0 when that Hoyas burst started. Marquette was able to hold on for an 11-10 victory over Georgetown to move to 4-2 on the season and 1-0 in Big East play, while the Hoyas dropped to 2-7 overall and 0-1 in the league.

The major factor in Marquette’s win? Joe Dunn. The senior attacker stepped up big time for the Golden Eagles, scoring a career best four goals, including Marquette’s final two goals of the game topped off by the eventual game-winner with five minutes remaining. Dunn also had three ground balls in the game, but perhaps none bigger than the grab he recorded on the face-off after GU’s Peter Conley scored with 93 seconds left to pull Georgetown back within one. Dunn’s pickup allowed the Golden Eagles to hold onto the ball until the very last waning seconds of the game, leaving Georgetown with only a desperation heave that went wide of the net.

Head coach Joe Amplo had this to say to GoMarquette.com after the game:

“Joe Dunn showed the guys what playing inspired looked like and I’m really proud of him. He played like a senior with something to prove and he looked like he was having fun.”

Marquette overwhelmed Georgetown in the first 15 minutes, outshooting the Hoyas 13-9 and finding the back of the net five times with five different scorers. Things shifted back towards the home team’s favor in the second period, but Georgetown’s 9-6 shot advantage only turned into a 3-2 goals advantage as Grant Preisler and - you guessed it - Joe Dunn fired home markers for the Golden Eagles to keep them ahead 7-3 at the half.

It was pretty much all Georgetown coming out of the locker room, with the Hoyas outshooting Marquette 15-2, outworking MU for ground balls, 8-4, and forcing five Marquette turnovers. With just 15 minutes left to play, it was 8-6 on the scoreboard with Ryan McNamara’s only goal of the game providing MU with some breathing room.

You probably can’t call the fourth quarter pretty, but it certainly was action packed. The two teams spent the final frame trading goals back and forth, combining to score seven times, firing a total of 26 combined shots, and scraping up a total of 25 ground balls as well. Marquette was prone to butterfingers again, tacking on another six turnovers, and two of them led directly to Georgetown goals less than a minute later. The final MU turnover of the game is what led to Patrick Aslanian’s goal with 6:37 remaining that made it 10-9, and things got awful tense on the Marquette sideline after Peter Tagliaferri won the ensuing face-off. Marquette goalie Cole Blazer made the save on a Daniel Bucaro shot, one of 14 in the game for the junior, and that’s what set up Dunn’s game winner.

Dunn led all goal scorers with his four-pack on the day, and Marquette got pairs of strikes from Preisler and Tanner Thomson as well. Georgetown had four guys score twice to keep their offense humming with both Conley and Devon Lewis tacking on an assist to give them three points on the day.

How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: It’s a quick turnaround for the Golden Eagles for a big time game. The good news is that they’ll be back in Milwaukee on Tuesday afternoon to host Air Force. The Falcons are 6-3 on the season after needing overtime to beat Jacksonville on Saturday and keep them in the running for a top 20 poll spot come Monday.