Recapping A Marquette Men’s Lacrosse Win & Previewing Their Next Game

Shouts to Griffin Fleming!

In his final game at Valley Fields, the senior from Pennsylvania, provided the fireworks in overtime as Marquette men’s lacrosse knocked off St. John’s, 9-8, for MU’s first Big East win of the season. The Golden Eagles are now 2-7 overall and 1-6 in conference action.

For a minute or so early in the first quarter, it looked like the Golden Eagles were going to take control against the 1-6 Red Storm and never let go. Chris Kirschner scored his first goal of the season at the 11:52 mark, which was followed in short order by a goal from Peter Henkhaus to put Marquette up 2-1. 75 seconds later, Holden Patterson took advantage of an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Johnnies, and boom, 3-1 Golden Eagles.

That lead did not last, and in fact, leading the game did not last to the end of the period for Marquette. Jonathan Huber and Mike Madsen tallied for the Red Storm before the first quarter ended, and it was 3-all after 15 minutes. The goals kept coming pretty fast and furious to start the next period, but Mason Woodward’s goal in transition for Marquette with 9:13 left in the half was the final marker before halftime. That left the Golden Eagles up 5-4 at the break.

Devon Cowan scored to open the third and put MU up 6-4, but the Golden Eagles went on a cold streak for a while after that. The Johnnies tallied the next three goals, and Huber’s goal with 12:58 to go in the fourth — yes, we changed quarters here — made it 7-6 St. John’s.

Cowan broke the streak by scoring to tie it at seven with 8:22 to go, and this goal from Garrett Moya made it 8-7 MU with 5:06 to go.

That lead didn’t last, but you knew that, because you already knew this went to overtime. Mike Madsen found the back of the net with 3:10 to go, and neither team could break the 8-8 tie after that.

Overtime was all Marquette after Thomas Washington won the faceoff to himself. Marquette had shot after shot after shot at the net, but they were able to maintain possession, even after Connor McClelland had one saved by SJU goalie Brody Agres. Unlike a bunch of other saves by Agres earlier in the game, this one did not end up caught in his stick, but instead bounced free for Ryan Fazio to pick up. That led to this rip from Fleming:

And so we proceed to Saturday’s proceedings.....

Big East Game #8: at Providence Friars (4-6, 3-5 Big East)

Date: Saturday, April 17, 2021
Time: 10am Central
Location: Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium, Providence, Rhode Island
Streaming: Friars.com, but it appears to be Premium Subscription content only.
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteMLax

Marquette is 5-3 all time against Providence. However, the Golden Eagles are just 2-3 in the last five encounters, including two straight losses after the Friars won 12-8 at Valley Fields earlier this season.

Well, I’ll say this for how Providence’s season has gone since we last saw them: Marquette fans are very familiar with the experience. Let’s run it down:

• 14-9 loss at home to #4 Georgetown
• 19-11 loss at home to #8 Denver
• 13-6 loss on the road at Receiving Votes Villanova

Rings a lot of bells, doesn’t it?

They snapped their three game losing skid last Saturday by beating the St. John’s team that Marquette just beat by a score of 19-9. I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean relative to Marquette needing overtime to beat the Johnnies, but given that Providence befuddled Marquette for a while, it’s probably not great.

Defending Providence is going to be a problem. Last time around, Matt Grillo came off the bench and scored five of PC’s 12 goals against Marquette. Grillo is currently one of four Friars who have tallied at least 22 points this season, which means they’re good for at least two per game. Dan Axelson is getting to that average purely on goals, as he has a team high 20 on the year in his 10 games played. Ryan Nawrocki is leading the team in points with 27 thanks to distributing a team high 17 assists. I haven’t mentioned Ryan Zimmerman (16G, 10A) yet, so I’m just wedging him in absolutely naturally like this. Tim Hinrichs has played in nine of PC’s 10 games, and he’s also over the two-points-a-game average with 19 (14G, 5A) this season.

Toby Burgdorf gave Marquette fits in the first meeting this season, making 14 saves including five in the final quarter to preserve PC’s win. He has a goals-against average of 12.87 this season, which is both kind of good and kind of bad. The Big East says he’s eighth in the league, but he’s third amongst goalies with 400 minutes played and fifth in a six team league amongst netminders with 300 minutes played. In short: Burgdorf has been one of the most reliable goalies in the league in terms of being on the field.... but that hasn’t meant much in terms of not allowing goals. His save percentage is just barely under 50%, so if MU can put shots on goal, you’d like to think that they can get them to go in the net.