It was a bittersweet game for Jackson Rose.
The now Marquette senior attacker helped his new squad defeat his former school Saturday afternoon as the Golden Eagles beat (5-3) St. Bonaventure (1-8) by a score of 9-5.
“I know it’s hard for him today,” Marquette head coach Andrew Stimmel said. “I think he was equally excited, but it’s hard. He spent four years with the program and then just one in another uniform.”
Sophomore attacker Will Foster said Rose had a message for the team before the game.
“He had a bunch of really good buddies on the team,” Foster said. “He was saying to us before the game ‘I’m grateful I’m here, but I love those guys back at St. Bonaventure,’ so it was definitely important to get a win.”
Offensive Onslaught
It took a few minutes to get going, but in the first quarter Marquette scored first. One minute and nine seconds later, the Golden Eagles would add two more to take a 3-0 lead.
The Golden Eagles’ defense spurred on their early run: senior defender Mason Woodward and graduate student defender Zach Granger each scored.
“We up shifted a little bit and felt like we need to get some goals in transition today,” Stimmel said. “Thankfully, we got a couple, but we’ll put the work in, turning to conference next week.”
Senior attacker Jake Stegman added another goal before the first quarter was over to help Marquette gain a 4-0 lead. Quickly into the second quarter, St. Bonaventure scored its only goal of the first half after a prolonged attack.
Marquette spent most of the second quarter scoreless with the exception of 37 seconds of magic from Foster and sophomore attacker Bobby O’Grady. In that brief window, Foster assisted two O’Grady goals.
“Bobby’s a fantastic goal scorer and player,” Foster said. “I love having him on our side, he makes it easy on us.”
Second Half
After a contentious and goalless first seven minutes of the third quarter, Marquette scored in style after Stegman found first-year attacker Andrew Bowman with a no-look pass setting up the Golden Eagles’ only goal of the quarter.
Andrew Bowman with a goal off of a beautiful assist by Jake Stegman makes it 7-1!#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/8qdHVFSW7d
— Marquette Lacrosse (@MarquetteMLax) March 25, 2023
St. Bonaventure would respond to Marquette’s goal with two of its own to make the score 7-3 before the period was over. Despite outshooting the Bonnies 48-29, Marquette ended up being outscored 2-1 in the third quarter.
“It’s just about the process and trying to get higher quality shots, maybe a couple fall,” Stimmel said. “We got a couple of those in the fourth and that’s all you can do. Sometimes you have a bad shooting day. Give credit to their goalie, he had 13 saves.”
Marquette’s own goalie Michael Allieri also posted a double-digit save game with 10 saves; it’s his third such game this season.
“I thought we played great defense and credit to our guys, but Mike had a good game with 10 saves,” Stimmel said. “So that was good to see.”
O’Grady scored twice more in the final quarter to seal the win for the Golden Eagles, putting him now at a team-high 23 goals on the season.
Foster has missed three games so far this season and made an impact back in the lineup today with his two assists.
“It’s been great to have Will back in the lineup,” Stimmel said. “I thought he played an incredible game last week. He did some really good stuff today. Those two guys would be the first to tell you if you ask them after the game that we have a lot to work on.”
Up Next:
Marquette (5-3) will fly out to Providence, Rhode Island to kick off Big East play against Providence (4-5) April 1. The matchup will take place at 11 a.m. CST and will be broadcast on FloSports.
This article was written by John Gunville. He can be reached at j[email protected] or on Twitter @GunvilleJohn.
