Transition defense and poor offensive production doomed the men’s lacrosse team Saturday as it fell to Marist 16-12.
In the first meeting between the two teams, Marquette (1-3) outshot the Red Foxes (2-2) 47-33 and the squad struggled to find the net. The 47 shots are the most Marquette has taken in a single game.
Marist goalie Dave Scarcello played a big role, making 14 stops in the game. Even though Marquette tallied a season high 12 goals, the offense played its worst game of the season. One of the few positives came from redshirt senior attackman Bryan Badolato, who tied a career high with five goals in the game, earning him Big East Offensive Player of the Week.
Offensive production was noticeably problematic on the man-up, where the squad went 0-5. Prior to the game, Marquette was first in the Big East for man-up but fell to third with a .357 scoring percentage.
Decision-making was the downside of the offense, which could not figure out the Marist zone defense. The team did not rotate well, spread out the zone or draw double teams to open up players and instead settled for bad shots.
“I thought it was a game we let slip away from us and should have won,” Badolato said. “We took a lot of shots but I think as a team we need to be more selective. They weren’t very high percentage shots, and I think that’s something we need to work in practice.”
Marquette started the game strong, scoring two goals early. Things went south, however, once Marist found a rhythm. The Red Foxes responded to the opening goals with six unanswered, three of which came in the final 67 seconds of the first quarter. Marquette scored two more before the end of the half, but trailed 9-4 at the break.
In the second half, Marquette outscored Marist 8-7, but Marist never let the squad get closer than two goals and downed the Golden Eagles 16-12.
In addition to offensive woes, faceoffs and defense failed to perform as well. Senior faceoff specialist Cullen Cassidy won the initial draw on many of his faceoffs, but his team could not come up with the possession. Going 13-for-27 dropped Cassidy’s faceoff percentage to .438 this year, which is slightly above the .429 team average from last season.
Most of the goals came in transition, with seven goals coming a minute after faceoffs. Coach Joe Amplo credits part of the transition problems to the team’s inability to practice full field. The team practices on an indoor field that is much smaller than a regulation lacrosse field.
“Our inability to practice full speed has caught up to is,” Amplo said. “At that area of the field we cannot simulate those scenarios at all in practice. The only time we get to do it is game days, and to expect that we’re going to be successful against a good team, against any team is expecting a lot.”
A spring break trip is up next for Marquette. Heading down south to the warmer weather allows the team to practice full field for a week, but the Golden Eagles also play three games against Jacksonville, reigning national champion Duke, and Detroit in an eight-day span.
“It’s going to be nice actually getting outside for once for a whole week,” said junior defenseman Logan Tousaw. “I think spacing wise we need this, I think for our legs we need this, and I think for our lungs we need this.”
