Throughout the men’s lacrosse season, much of the attention has fallen on a few players including the team’s leading goal-scorer junior attackman John Wagner, senior goalie Cole Blazer and senior faceoff specialist Zachary Melillo.
However, a different player has stood out to head coach Joe Amplo, a player who doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet: junior midfielder Bob Pelton.
“(Bob) Pelton is a guy who I think is just primed for some good things,” Amplo said. “His athleticism has always been there, but now he’s starting to play a little bit more confident.”
Hearing praise from Amplo was especially meaningful for Pelton after battling injuries throughout the first two years of his Marquette career. In his first two seasons, Pelton did not play at all, but he has appeared in 10 of 13 games this season.
“That’s really cool,” Pelton said. “But there’s definitely some pressure that comes with that as well. Knowing that (Amplo) looks at you in that way, I want him to think that going forward.”
Unlike Wagner and fellow attackman Anthony Orsini, Pelton only has three goals and one assist on the season, but his fundamentals still help his team win games. On a team that doesn’t have a dominating, one-on-one physical presence at attack, Pelton helps make things easier on his teammates.
“I like to think that I dodge hard and I can draw a slide,” Pelton said. “Taking pressure off of Johnny (Wagner), a lot of teams are going to key on (him), and maybe if I can dodge hard, then they won’t have to just shut down John. They’ve got to worry about other kids that can beat their guy too.”
On the rare occasions when Pelton does find the back of the net, the theme song from the TV show “Curb Your Enthusiasm” rings out across the bubble of Valley Fields. Each player gets to choose his own goal music and Pelton’s choice stems from his relationship with teammate Noah Richard.
“Noah Richard, he’s on the team and my housemate,” Pelton said. “Whenever something goofy happens in the house, sometimes we’ll turn (the song) on we just kind of think it’s kind of funny. I like hearing it. It’s goofy and funny.”
As the BIG EAST Tournament approaches for the Golden Eagles, Pelton won’t be able to hear “Curb Your Enthusiasm” anymore, but he said he still believes the team can keep its two-year conference title game streak going.
“We’re happy to be in the BIG EAST Tournament,” Pelton said. “Just going forward, just trying to get better every day would be a huge thing. By the BIG EAST Tournament, we want to be the best team that we can possibly be.”
Marquette plays top-seeded Denver in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals May 3 at 3:30 p.m.
