After opening BIG EAST play with a convincing win over Providence last time out, the Marquette men’s lacrosse team continued its recent fine form Saturday afternoon with a record-setting 23-13 win over St. John’s in Queens, New York.
Headlined by first-year attacker Bobby O’Grady’s program record eight goals, Marquette cruised for its second-straight win in dominant fashion.
Similar to last week’s victory, the Golden Eagles got out to a flying start in the opening quarter, jumping out to a 3-0 lead just two minutes into the game after goals from O’Grady, first-year midfielder Hayden Miller and first-year attacker Luke Blanc.
After St. John’s cut the early deficit to 5-3, Marquette responded with a trio of goals to take an 8-3 lead after the end of the first quarter.
Coming off his third BIG EAST Freshman of the Week award of the season — after setting the Marquette freshman record for goals in a game with six against Providence — O’Grady continued his record-setting season against St. John’s as he now has a team-leading 34 goals and counting.
In his second game back from injury, Devon Cowan recorded his second-straight hat-trick for Marquette, scoring all three of his goals in the second quarter.
A pair of St. John’s goals in the final minutes before halftime gave Marquette a 14-8 lead at the break, with O’Grady leading the team with five goals in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Golden Eagles would not let up, extending their lead 19-11 after O’Grady’s seventh goal of the afternoon broke the program record for most goals scored by a Marquette in a game.
Moments later, O’Grady’s eighth goal of the afternoon would break the program record for individual goals scored in a game. The previous mark was set by Andy Demichiei with seven goals, which also came against St. John’s April 9, 2016.
At the end of the third quarter, Marquette led 21-11 and headed into the final 15 minutes in full control on the road.
The Golden Eagles continued their dominance in the final frame, as goals from first-year midfielder Nolan Garcia and redshirt sophomore midfielder Patrick English capped of the team’s record-setting performance.
Redshirt sophomore Luke Williams also had himself a day in the midfield, posting a career-high 21 face-off wins for the Golden Eagles, just one shy of tying the program record.
Jonathan Huber and Brian Kelly combined for all 13 of St. John’s goals on the afternoon, with seven and six goals each, respectively.
Marquette outshot St. John’s 58-39 on the afternoon while also outnumbering the home side 40-14 in terms of ground balls won.
With the win, the Golden Eagles have now won nine-straight times against the Red Storm and have not lost to their BIG EAST foes since 2013.
Marquette (4-6, 2-0 BIG EAST) will look to continue its momentum when they take on Notre Dame April 12 back home at Valley Fields. Tuesday’s contest against the Fighting Irish is set for 4 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Sam Arco. He can be reached @[email protected] or on Twitter @SamArcoMU.
