Marquette men’s lacrosse just couldn’t keep up. Not after the first 15 minutes, that is.

The Golden Eagles opened the game with a quick goal from Jake Stegman after just seven seconds, and a first-quarter-ending Bobby O’Grady goal meant Marquette trailed 4-3 at the end of the opening period.

But after that, the Fighting Irish enacted their will and outscored the Golden Eagles 17-5 across the final three frames.

It ended in Marquette’s first defeat of the season, 21-8, Sunday afternoon in front of a sold out crowd at Valley Fields.

“I told our guys in the locker room that I am super proud of how hard they play,” Marquette head coach Andrew Stimmel said. “I didn’t really feel like we backed down from the team that’s a formal national championship team last year.”

Unrelenting offense

After holding Notre Dame (2-0) to four goals on ten shots in the first period, Marquette (3-1) soon found out just how good Notre Dame’s offense still was.

“Offensively, we had a lot of guys that contributed by trying not to do too much,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “They just made the right kind of plays and at the end of the day, we had enough guys to get over the hump.”

The Irish’s offensive output was highlighted by junior attacker Chris Kavanagh and graduate student attacker Pat Kavanagh. The brothers racked up seven points a piece. Chris scored four goals to go with three assists, and Pat earned a game-high five assists while scoring two goals of his own.

Overall, Notre Dame outshot Marquette 47-33 and forced the Golden Eagles to commit 17 turnovers.

O’Grady joins the 100 club

With 8:46 remaining in the 3rd period, O’Grady put one home to become the second Marquette player in program history to reach the century mark.

Welcome to the 100 club!

With his third of the day, O’Grady hits 100 career goals!#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/iYDvlYqJMb

— Marquette Lacrosse (@MarquetteMLax) February 18, 2024

“It’s a lot of credit to my teammates,” O’Grady said. “Without them I don’t have nearly as many goals.”

O’Grady had four goals on the day and sits just one goal shy of tying the all-time goals record holder Ryan McNamara for first place on the list (102).

“He’s (O’Grady) an incredible goal scorer and a great lacrosse player,” Stimmel said. “He’s certainly is going to be a big piece of the puzzle for us moving forward.”

Up next

The Golden Eagles travel to Naples, Florida to take on the No. 13 Michigan Wolverines in the third annual Southwest Florida Shootout Saturday Feb. 24.  The opening face-off is set for 6 p.m CST.

“We’re just not there yet, and that’s okay,” Stimmel said. “I believe in our team, I believe in our team’s ability to improve, I believe in our team’s ability to coach and get better.”

This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.