In retrospect, the three overtime games in Big East play was probably a bad sign.
On Friday night in the Rocky Mountains, Marquette men’s lacrosse couldn’t make a 2-0 lead (in the first minute!) or a 3-2 first quarter lead stand up, and they couldn’t find a way to a finish after a tie with four minutes to go, ultimately ending up with a 10-9 loss to Denver. With the loss, Marquette drops to 6-7 on the year and 2-3 in Big East action. That leaves the Golden Eagles on the short end of a tie for fourth
place in the conference with the Pioneers, and so Denver gets the #4 seed in the conference tournament and Marquette sees their season come to an end.
Saying Marquette was up 3-2 in the first quarter doesn’t quite set the scene properly, as Carsen Brandt’s goal to make it 3-2 was actually the lone Marquette goal in a 5-1 Denver run if you pivot your perspective for a moment. That left the score at 5-3 with 6:22 left in the second quarter, and that was the score at halftime. That’s not a terrible score for halftime, but when you take into account the fact that 1) Marquette was held scoreless in the period while the Pioneers scored three goals and 2) Denver outshot Marquette 12-6, it was really a bad time for the Golden Eagles, and may have paved the way to the loss.
In the third, MU was right on Denver’s heels the whole time, and just couldn’t quite push even. A goal from Marek Tzagournis with four seconds left in the quarter made it 8-5 Denver heading to the final 15 minutes. Jack Kask came on to play goalie for Marquette in the fourth quarter, and he was outstanding, making play after play to give MU a chance. They eventually did, getting goals from Nolan Rappis, Ethan Salvia, and Andrew Bowman to pull even at eight goals apiece.
A tremendous lacrosse game for what amounts to a play-in game for the conference tournament, no matter what.
Denver won the ensuing faceoff, and Cody Malawsky eventually scored to get Denver out in front. They won the next faceoff as well, but Marquette forced a turnover…. and eventually MU’s shot with 94 seconds left was saved by Grayson Manning. Marquette went out into a ride, Denver didn’t go to the open net with any hurry, but eventually Tzagournis did with under 30 seconds left. That was mostly it, although a goal from Ethan Salvia with 10 seconds left gave MU the narrowest possible “wellll, y’know……” margin you can think of, but the Pioneers were happy to scuffle the ball around on the faceoff, and that was that.
Pick whichever game you want, but Marquette had a lead late against Villanova before losing in overtime, and they were tied late against Denver before losing. Flip either one, and MU’s playing next weekend. That didn’t happen, and now the Golden Eagles wrap up the year with a losing record and no postseason appearance in Jake Richard’s second season in charge.
Highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:
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