A Tale Of Two Halves: #4 Georgetown 20, Marquette Men’s Lacrosse 13

Going into Saturday’s Big East men’s lacrosse game between Marquette and #4 ranked Georgetown, I was kind of holding my breath about the onslaught that was headed towards the Golden Eagles. The Hoyas had held their first two Big East foes of the season to just one goal each while scoring 35 combined goals, and in their other game of the season, they allowed just five goals and won by 12. Meanwhile, Marquette had looked tough and scrappy in their losses to Denver and Villanova, but it certainly looked like the Hoyas were playing at a different level to this point of the season.

And then Marquette scored four straight goals to close the first quarter and lead the #4 ranked Hoyas 5-3 after 15 minutes.

To review:

• Georgetown’s first two games ended with the Hoyas allowing just one goal in 60 minutes both times
• Georgetown’s third game ended with the Hoyas allowing five goals in 60 minutes and only one in the first quarter
• Marquette scored five times in the first quarter against Georgetown

YEAH. THAT’S WIIIIIILD.

Things got wilder, as Devon Cowan’s goal with 8:25 to go in the second quarter — IN THE SECOND QUARTER — officially made Marquette the most prolific offense the Hoyas had seen all season at six goals scored, and a man-up goal from Griffin Fleming followed by Ryan Fazio finishing out his hat trick with six seconds left had the Golden Eagles tied with the Hoyas at eight goals each at halftime.

An amazing 30 minutes of lacrosse for Andrew Stimmel’s team. It defied all expectations from any angle you want to look at it.

And then Connor McClelland scored 43 seconds into the second half to put Marquette up 9-8. No one had led Georgetown in the second half so far this season, but the Golden Eagles did it on Saturday.

That was the last high point of the game.

Apparently the halftime speech in the Georgetown locker room went something like “WHAT THE BLEEP, WE’RE GEORGETOWN BLEEPING LACROSSE, THEY CAN’T BLEEPING DO THAT TO US,” and the Hoyas went right back to being the juggernaut that they looked like for the first 180 minutes of the season. After McClelland’s goal to break the ice on the second half, 12 of the next 13 goals came out of a Georgetown stick — shouts to Devon Cowan for breaking up the run in the middle to make it 12-10 at one point and provide a flicker of hope before it all came crashing down — and the Hoyas led 20-10 with 7:24 to go.

Your final from D.C.: #4 Georgetown 20, Marquette 13.

30 minutes of HOLY CRAP THEY’RE RUNNING WITH GEORGETOWN THIS IS AMAZING, and 30 minutes of HOLY CRAP, THIS IS WHAT ST. JOHN’S AND VILLANOVA FELT LIKE.

Oh well. Marquette is now 0-3 on the season and 0-3 in Big East play after the cards dealt to them meant playing three preseason top 20 teams right out of the gate.

Fazio finished with four goals, and Cowan added a hat trick of his own plus an assist to match Fazio in points. Fleming had two goals and three assists to top the points column on the day. Mason Woodward was running around with a vacuum cleaner instead of a pole to the tune of eight ground balls, while P.J. Cox had three caused turnovers.

Wanna watch some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GUHoyas.com?

Up Next: A respite from these jerk ranked teams and their fancy ultra productive offenses and defenses. Next Saturday, it’s Providence coming to Valley Fields for a Big East clash. The Friars are 2-2 on the season as of this writing after beating Fairfield 18-17 back on Wednesday evening. They’ll host Villanova on Sunday, March 7, before winging their way to Milwaukee.