No. 15/16 Marquette (9-3) came out of the gates with a vengeance against No 1/1 Notre Dame (8-1). Redshirt junior long-stick midfielder Liam Byrnes scored right off the first draw, only seven seconds into the game. On the next possession, junior midfielder Liam Byrnes buried a shot to extend the league to two. The Notre Dame offense didn’t even touch the ball in the first few minutes.
Then the Fighting Irish began playing like a top-ranked team, and hit the Golden Eagles like a freight train. Notre Dame scored seven goals in a row, and Marquette was never able to fight back in the Golden Eagles 14-7 loss.
“When you look at it from a physical standpoint, we’re right there with these guys,” coach Joe Amplo said. “They’re a great team, and they executed better than we did. There were spots of the game where it’s pretty even, and then there’s spots where it’s not.”
Fleming led the team with three goals, the only Golden Eagle with more than one. Sophomore goalie Jimmy Danaher made 14 saves, twice as many as Notre Dame’s Shane Doss.
It was the Conor Doyle show for the Fighting Irish, as the senior attackman dazzled in a four goal effort. Sergio Perkovic also had a stellar day, scoring three goals and two assists. For the second season in a row Matt Kavanagh was held without a goal. He had three assists.
Notre Dame won 16 of 24 faceoffs. Redshirt junior K.C. Kennedy was the only faceoff man to win a draw, going 8 of 21. They took advantage of the Golden Eagles six penalties, scoring four times on the man-up.
Despite the seven goal run from Notre Dame the Golden Eagles hung with the top ranked Irish for a good portion of the second half. Marquette narrowed the lead to 11-7, but Notre Dame answered with three straight goals in the fourth quarter.
“We got beat by a better team, but we grew up a little bit today,”
Marquette is still looking for its first victory against Notre Dame after three attempts. The loss was the first against a ranked opponent this season.
The Golden Eagles play their final road game of the season Saturday against Providence. They’ll close out their regular season with games against Duke and Denver at Hart Park.
