Marquette Can’t Close The Deal Against #13 Villanova

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:

Marquette men’s lacrosse hung with a top 15 opponent on Saturday, giving them everything they could handle, gained and lost a multi-goal lead in the third quarter, got back out in front in the fourth quarter, lost the lead, and ended up losing in overtime.

That’s what happened to Marquette against #10 Georgetown last Saturday, and that’s what happened to Marquette against #13 Villanova this Saturday. Heck, the scores were nearly identical: 15-14 to the Hoyas, 16-15 to the Wildcats. The only true difference? Marquette was the team that forced overtime against the Hoyas, scoring twice in the final 70 seconds to prompt the extra session, while this time around, it was Villanova dragging the Golden Eagles into a sudden victory format with an Austin Fraser goal with just 33 seconds to go. That goal was his third of the game and hey, would you look at that, Fraser is the guy who beat MU goalie Lucas Lawas for the game winner just over a minute into the extra period.

In a way, it’s good news that Marquette had a chance to win in the final minute. They were down 3-0 just over four minutes into the game, which is really not the start that you want after you lost in overtime to the #10 team in the country last week. It was almost all Bobby O’Grady who fixed that, as he scored three times before the first quarter was over, and that partnered up with a Jake Stegman goal to make it 4-4 after 15 minutes.

Villanova went up two before two minutes went by in the second, and yet somehow Luke Blanc tied the game at seven with 5:14 to go before halftime and two more goals — one from O’Grady with a man advantage and another from David Lamarca — put the Golden Eagles up 9-7 at intermission. That lead would grow to three at 11-8 with 10:01 left in the third period as the Golden Eagles wrapped up a 6-1 run bridging halftime.

That’s about where MU’s luck ran out for the day, as Fraser tied the contest at 11 with 3:43 to go in the quarter and the Wildcats would lead 14-12 at the end of it. That’s a 6-1 Villanova rush in just over seven minutes, and that’s really not what you want.

And yet.

Marquette scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter, with two coming from Devon Cowan, and it was 15-14 Marquette with six minutes left. That lead held for a good long time. Mason Woodward scooped a ground ball after VU hit the post. Marquette’s Brendan Boyle forced a turnover from Matt Campbell, Villanova’s top offensive threat. Marquette induced a shot clock violation. Lucas Lawas made a save with less than a minute to go….. but he didn’t gather the ball in. That led to a rebound and a putback goal from Fraser.

There’s not much else to say, other than MU did have one final chance to score in regulation since they did win the ensuing face off and also the Wildcats won the face off to start overtime. 1:11 later, it was Fraser ending it in favor of the home team and leaving Marquette with a record of 1-3 in Big East games with just one left to go.

Bobby O’Grady and Devon Cowan led the way for Marquette with four goals each, and Luke Blanc added a hat trick. Jake Stegman matched Blanc in points by way of a goal and two assists.

How about some highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports?

Up Next: Marquette will have one final regular season game. That will be against Denver this coming Friday night with a 6pm Central time start, and quite honestly, if Marquette does not win, it will be their final game of the season. It will also be the final regular season game for the career of DU head coach Bill Tierney, who has already announced that he is retiring at the end of the season. The Pioneers are ranked #10 in the country this week and have a record of 8-4 on the season after beating Providence 13-6 on Friday evening.