The Marquette men’s lacrosse team kicked off the 10th year anniversary of the program in winning fashion, defeating Bellarmine University by a score of 9-8 in a triple-overtime thriller Saturday afternoon at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.
First-year attacker Bobby O’ Grady was the hero for the Golden Eagles, scoring four goals and providing the game-winner in his collegiate debut.
With the win, Marquette now leads the all-time series against Bellarmine 5-3. The Golden Eagles have won four of the last five meetings between the two sides.
Despite getting out to a slow start and trailing 1-0 midway through the first period, Marquette finished the period with a narrow 2-1 lead.
The Golden Eagles continued their momentum into the second with a trio of goals to take a 3-1 lead with 13:19 left in the first half, after redshirt sophomore attacker Devon Cowan scored his second goal of the game.
However, the Knights would respond with four goals in a span of six minutes to take a 5-4 lead over the Golden Eagles at the halftime break.
O’Grady scored two goals in the third period and another late goal in the period from graduate student midfielder Aaron Joseph helped Marquette regain the lead going into the final frame with an 8-7 advantage.
The Golden Eagles were unable to hold off the Knights in the final period however, as Justin Wescoat scored for Bellarmine with 6:29 left to play, tying things up 8-8 down the stretch.
Neither side was able to find the winner in regulation, sending the season-opener into overtime.
Marquette had plenty of chances to find its sudden death goal because of an extra-man opportunity in the first overtime period, but a couple of saves from Bellarmine goalkeeper JC Higginbotham kept the game level sending it to a second overtime.
Higginbotham had 14 saves on the afternoon for the Knights.
Much like the first overtime, both sides had their fair share of chances to find the winner, but neither side could capitalize, resulting in a third overtime to be played.
Due to an unnecessary roughness penalty on Bellarmine’s Jon Robbins at the end of the second overtime, Marquette started triple overtime with an extra-man opportunity.
The Golden Eagles took full advantage of it, as O’Grady netted the game-winner past Higginbotham to give Marquette the win and the season-opener victory.
Marquette outshot Bellarmine 46-28 throughout the contest while O’Grady and Cowan led the way with 13 shots a piece.
Bellarmine had eight different goal scorers on the afternoon.
Sophomore attacker Russell Melendez was everywhere for Marquette, posting a game-high six points. Melendez finished the contest with one goal and a career-high five assists.
The Golden Eagles are now 7-3 all-time in season lid-lifters.
Marquette (1-0) will now look to build off this afternoon’s win when they take on Jacksonville University Feb. 19. Next Saturday’s contest in Jacksonville is set for 11 a.m. CST.
This story was written by Sam Arco. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @SamArcoMU.
