Photo by Jordan Johnson

Marquette men’s lacrosse’s game against Cleveland State Saturday afternoon was supposed to be a tuneup. Instead, it was a disaster, as Marquette suffered a 7-5 loss to the Vikings at Valley Fields.

“We got beat by a better team today,” head coach Joe Amplo said. “Cleveland State was better than Marquette this afternoon.”

Marquette is now on a three-game losing skid after starting the season out 2-0.

Marquette was without 19 of its players, who were suspended because of a violation of team rules. Amplo did not explain what the violation was.

Last week’s entire starting offense was missing from this matchup. Juniors Ryan Fazio, Peter Henkhaus and Connor McClelland, redshirt seniors Andrew Romagnoli and Tanner Thomson and senior John Wagner were the most notable absences from the lineup, and the attack unit seemed lost without them.

After Marquette notched the first goal of the day, Cleveland State went on a 4-0 run to end the first quarter. Neither team scored for the remainder of the half.

The second half featured much more offense. Marquette remained within a goal for most of the fourth quarter, but the Vikings did enough to fend off a Marquette comeback.

Junior Luke Anderson led the way for MU with two goals. Redshirt sophomore Griffin Fleming, redshirt freshman Garrett Moya and redshirt senior Mikey Zadroga III all tallied a goal.

Moya was one of the few bright spots for the Golden Eagles. The attackman had a severe leg injury that kept him out all of last season and was cleared to play today just three hours before gametime.

“(Moya) worked his tail off for a year and a half. The first opportunity he gets, he goes in there, plays almost 60 minutes and scores a goal,” Amplo said, “That’s what this program is about, guys like that.”

In goal, junior Chris Rolfing earned the start, making nine saves and giving up four goals in 30 minutes of action.

“That’s the most saves any goalie has had for us all year,” Amplo said. “(Rolfing) does the right thing all the time. He makes good decisions, he loves Marquette, and he puts this program before any decision in his life.”

Sophomore goalie John Hulsman played the whole second half, ending with four saves and three goals allowed.

For Cleveland State, Nick Polydoras put up two goals, and five other players added a tally. CSU faceoff man Danny Tesler went 11 for 16 at the dot, and goalie Caleb Espinoza made six saves for the Vikings.

Marquette (2-3) will now head to Pennsylvania to take on Robert Morris Tuesday at 12 p.m. Central Time.

“We’re going to look at this film and hope to grow from it,” Amplo said. “We’re going to see who cares about trying to represent Marquette the right way over the course of the next few days.”