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In our preview of Saturday’s men’s lacrosse clash between YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles and the #18 ranked Villanova Wildcats, we theorized that the game may come down to which team adjusted to the other one better after Villanova’s 16-14 victory over MU earlier this season. If that was the case, then I think we can safely say that Villanova made either more adjustments or they made the better adjustments.
The Wildcats scored twice in the first two minutes and poured it on from there, leading 5-2 at the end of the first quarter and 12-4 at halftime on their way to handing Marquette a 19-8 defeat at Villanova Stadium. Marquette is now 3-8 on the year and 2-7 in Big East play. The Golden Eagles needed a victory here and in their regular season finale to have a chance at a Big East tournament berth, and so that door is now closed, even though MU got the help they needed from Georgetown on Saturday.
It didn’t look good for Marquette in the early goings, but the game didn’t officially fall apart on the Golden Eagles until the final five minutes of the first half. Devon Cowan scored for MU with 7:47 left in the second quarter to get things back to a manageable 8-4 margin. You don’t want to be trailing by four goals against a ranked opponent, but also 37 minutes is a lot of lacrosse. With 4:42 left to go in the second quarter, Colin Crowley scored for the Wildcats and that’s where the problems really got going. Crowley’s goal would be the first of four by Villanova before halftime, and it turned into an 8-0 run capped off by Keegan Khan at the 5:35 mark of the third quarter. That’s over a quarter’s worth of action going by without Marquette scoring a goal, and at the end of if, Villanova was up 16-4.
That’s your ballgame.
Connor McClelland led MU in scoring by netting a hat trick here, while Ryan Fazio and Griffin Fleming both recorded two points on a goal and an assist each. A week after backstopping Marquette to overtime wins over St. John’s and Providence, goalie Sean Richard was lifted by head coach Andrew Stimmel after just 32 minutes in this one as he had given up 12 goals and made just five saves up to that point.
There are Marquette themed highlights of this game, so please enjoy, courtesy of Villanova.com and GoMarquette.com.
Up Next: Marquette wraps up the 2021 season next week Friday with a matinee road game against St. John’s. First draw on that one is set for 11am Central Time on Friday, April 30th. MU beat the Red Storm 9-8 in overtime on April 14th in the first meeting between the two teams this season.