This was a frustrating game of lacrosse for the Golden Eagles, who drop to 0-3 in Big East action.
If you just look at the score — Providence beats Marquette men’s lacrosse, 13-10 — you could easily draw the conclusion that this was a hard fought competitive game and hats off to the Friars for being the team to solve the riddle at the end of 60 minutes.
Instead, I was left with the impression of a Marquette team that just refused to grab control of the contest and as a result, fell to 0-3 in Big East play and may have effectively ended their chances at a Big East tournament berth since they’re not quite mathematically eliminated yet.
Here’s my point, well, points, actually.
#1 — Marquette’s offense just kept going into major lulls.
The game was tied at three each at the 5:15 mark after Bobby O’Grady scored for the Golden Eagles. No problem, except Marquette wouldn’t score again for just short of another 12 minutes. When Carsen Brandt fired one in, he made it 8-4 Providence because PC piled five goals into the net in the meantime.
It was 9-6 at the half, and O’Grady scored the first goal after halftime to make it a two goal contest. No problem, even after that first lull, lots of lacrosse left, manageable margin, except Marquette didn’t score again in the quarter.
Providence led 11-7 heading to the final 15 minutes — you see the problem here — and Marquette tallied the first two goals of that quarter. 11-9, 12:21 to go, lots of time left, all sorts of things can happen….. and they just did not. Marquette didn’t score again until the final minute of the game, and no matter what PC head coach Bobby Benson thought — he made a successful challenge of a goal before MU tallied that last goal and then frantically called timeout after PC won the ensuing draw — the Golden Eagles were pretty much out of time at that point.
It didn’t have to be like that, but when you go 12, 15, and 12 minutes between goals in the second, third, and fourth quarter, yeah, you’re probably not going to win a lot of games.
#2 — Marquette’s man-up offense seemed lost.
This is maybe a subset of the first item, as it definitely played a part in Marquette not putting goals on the board.
Providence was whistled for six penalties in this game — three in the fourth quarter alone — for a total of five minutes of power play time for the Golden Eagles. They scored one goal, and that was Blanc’s goal in the final minute. Over the first five penalties of the game, which went their full and complete 4:30 of game time, Marquette attempted two shots and committed five turnovers. They committed two turnovers on one penalty, thanks to PC coughing it right back up and giving MU a chance to lose the ball again. One of MU’s shots was 22 seconds into a 30 second penalty, and it was saved by Providence’s James Corasaniti, the other went wide of the net 27 seconds into a 60 second penalty, and then Marquette turned the ball over.
Look, no one’s perfect at scoring with a man-up, although Notre Dame’s sure trying at a 73% success rate this season. Marquette’s not even bad, generally speaking, as they came into the game #26 in the country with a goal on 41% of their power plan chances. More than half of Division 1 doesn’t even score 40% of the time, but on this day, whether it was a by-product of the offensive struggles that we’ve seen over and over again this season or an outstanding defensive game plan from the Friars, Marquette couldn’t do a damn thing when they had time to find space to shoot the ball, and they looked even worse when they had extra time to find extra space.
Maybe the real bummer about the whole thing? Marquette might have had a great defensive gameplan that ultimately got lost in the weeds of the loss. MU held Richie Joseph, PC’s leading scorer with 33 goals, without a single point on five shots. Whether that was Mason Woodward enveloping him completely or a team effort, Marquette made Providence do things they’re not used to doing to beat them. Unfortunately, it turns out Ryan Bell is pretty good at things that aren’t passing. The Big East’s leader in points and assists per game this season ran wild shooting the ball, finishing with a hat trick on top of two assists. He had just 14 goals in 11 games coming in, and well, you have to close down every hole in the levee if you want to win, and MU didn’t do that.
Up Next: Marquette can not lose again if they want to qualify for the Big East tournament, and even then thats not a guarantee since they’re the only winless team in the league right now. MU will be back out on the natural grass outdoor surface at Valley Fields next Saturday when they welcome Villanova to town for Senior Day. First draw is set for Noon Central time. The Wildcats snapped a two game skid on Saturday when they picked up a 14-9 road win over St. John’s to move to 1-2 in Big East action.