Marquette Men’s Lacrosse Stays Undefeated With Win Over Detroit

A five point day from freshman Anthony Orsini powered Marquette men’s lacrosse to a 13-6 win over Detroit-Mercy on Saturday afternoon. The win keeps Marquette undefeated on the season, moving them to 2-0.

Orsini dominated the game, ripping off a game high 12 shots to score four goals against Detroit. He got off to it right away, dropping in two of his goals in the first five minutes and change of the game to stake Marquette to a 3-0 lead. Detroit would claw two goals back in the final five minutes to put a cap on the most competitive quarter of the game.

Things tilted heavy in Marquette’s way in the second quarter as they outshot the Titans 11-5. MU scored two goals, one each from John Wagner and Tom von den Benken, in the first two minutes of the period to kick off the scoring. After Jack Zerillo made it 6-2 on his first goal of the season, Orsini capped off his hat trick with 4:37 left before halftime. Detroit scored just 11 seconds after that, but that was it for the half in terms of goals.

The third and fourth quarters kept the motif of the first half going: Marquette scores a few times early, then lets Detroit get in some goals towards the end. Peter Henkhaus scored his second goal of the game with 4:42 left in the third to post Marquette to a 10-3 lead, and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. While MU may have allowed a few Detroit goals late in the quarters, they ended up outshooting the Titans 28-11 after halftime, so the game was clearly tilted in Marquette’s favor.

Zerillo finished the game with a hat trick of his own, while Wagner, the her of the day last weekend, tallied two goals and an assist to stay even with Orsini in terms of total points this season. Both men are sitting on eight each through two games.

Marquette used their notable lead to dig deep into the bench, putting 40 players out onto the field at least for a little bit. All three goalies saw action, although Gabe Stein and Chris Rolfing only carried the final five minutes after Cole Blazer made seven saves. Noah Richard had a nice day, grabbing up five ground balls, and face off specialist Zachary Melillo won 15 of 20 draws, and then caused two turnovers along the way as well.

Up Next: Marquette will be back at Wisner Stadium in Pontiac, Michigan, next weekend for the Midwest Lacrosse Classic. They’ll tangle with #5 Ohio State on Friday afternoon before squaring off with Bellarmine on Sunday morning. The Buckeyes are 3-0 this season with a Sunday date at Jacksonville still to come, while the Knights are 1-3 with the win coming at home against Cleveland State.