We knew going in to Monday’s daytime men’s lacrosse game between Marquette and Detroit Mercy that the game would be ultimately a bit of a mystery for those of us who don’t have the ability to bounce off to eastern Michigan at a moment’s notice to visit Titan Field and watch the game in person. Detroit Mercy wasn’t offering a streaming broadcast for whatever reason — their remaining home games this year are all on ESPN+, but also all in conference play — and I can’t fault the traveling Golden Eagles
for not being able to have one extra person to go up into the stands and livestream the game on YouTube or whatever.
And so, we were stuck watching live stats from the comfort of our homes or offices, and after one quarter, Marquette was up 4-1 on Detroit Mercy. Four different Golden Eagles found the net, and MU held UDM scoreless for the final seven minutes of the period. Shots were 14-6 in favor of Marquette with 13 of 14 landing on frame, and shots were 8-4 in MU’s favor after Andrew Parker scored for the Titans midway through the frame.
Okay, quality start, got it in gear towards the end, it seems, nice going.
But then the live stats stopped updating.
I checked the weather for Detroit, even though I knew that the likely bad snow was really aimed at the east coast. Snow showers according to The Weather Channel, so that’s not bad enough to call the game. No updates from either team on social media. No criticism of Marquette there, as why post outside of the quarter breaks without video highlights of goals?
Just silence. Allllllmost to the point of wondering if Something Very Not Good Had Happened, even though the most likely answer was “someone on the UDM game administration team kicked a cable free.”
And then the live stats were back at the end of the half. Marquette 8, Detroit Mercy 1. Beau Westphal and Carsen Brandt had both scored twice in the frame, once early, once late for both of them, and MU held a 10-3 shots advantage in the period. Nicely done, even if it was a total mystery until the quarter ended and someone plugged the live stat machine back into the internet.
Marquette’s run of consecutive goals hit nine straight on a marker from Westphal with 12:33 left in the third and the Golden Eagles were up 10-1 at that point. 12-3 after three quarters, and then MU threw in three goals in the final five minutes to make it 15-4 when the final horn sounded.
A much stronger performance than the come-from-behind win over Cleveland State just two days earlier, or at least the stats make it look like that. 43-20 on shots, 34-14 in shots on goal, 20 Detroit Mercy turnovers versus just 11 for Marquette, 25-for-26 on clears, 37-23 on ground balls, 14-9 on faceoffs. Marquette even scored their third man-up goal of the year to bring their success rate to 25% on the season.
Beau Westphal had a career high four goals to lead Marquette in that column, while a hat trick and two assists gave Nolan Rappis the team lead in points. Brady Nicholas speared six ground balls to win that category for Marquette, while Ty Ambush picked up five ground balls on his way to going 6-for-10 on draws in this game. Nicholas also had two caused turnovers to lead Marquette there, as the Golden Eagles only got credit for forcing seven of Detroit Mercy’s 20 miscues in the game. Lucas Lawas made four saves in the first half before giving way to Jack Kask for the remainder, and Kask had a nice day with six saves on on nine shots on goal from the Titans.
Up Next: With their record on the year evened out at 2-2, it’s time for the Golden Eagles to challenge themselves again. They’ll be back in action on Saturday, when they make their way out to Long Island for a neutral site game against Harvard. First draw at Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York, is set for 11:30am Central time according to Marquette…. but 11am according to Harvard. Huh. The Crimson are 3-0 on the year with three wins over teams earning national poll votes, including downing #1 Syracuse, 13-12, in Cambridge on Saturday. That win jumped Harvard from #14 in last week’s Inside Lacrosse top 20 poll to #4 this week.
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