You gotta finish the drill if you want to beat a preseason top 20 team, and the Golden Eagles couldn’t do that here.
With 7:04 left in the second quarter, Brady Nicholas scored, making use of his long pole to haul in the rebound off a Carsen Brandt miss, and with that, Marquette was all even with #20 Michigan at four goals each.
The Golden Eagles had fallen behind 2-0 in the first four minutes of the 2026 season opener before halving the margin going intot he second quarter. Back-to-back goals from Brandt got Marquette even at three before both teams scored again within three minutes to leave the whole thing at four goals each. A pretty solid first 23 minutes of the season for Marquette as they caught up to and stayed even with a Wolverines team that came into the year ranked in the Inside Lacrosse media poll.
After that… yeah, kinda got messy. Michigan scored three more times before the half ended to lead 7-4 at the break. Okay, not a problem, not really, and less of one after Tucker Mullen scored his first goal as a Golden Eagle — and his first Division 1 goal since before his open heart surgery in November 2023! — to break the ice on the second half. 7-5 Michigan with nearly two full quarters to play, that’s lots of time…… right?
It is lots of time, it’s lots of time for Michigan to score seven unanswered goals, making it a 10-1 run going back into the second quarter, and with 12:53 left in the game, Marquette was down 14-5. That’s pretty much that, although goals from Jake Bair and Beau Westphal narrowed the margin a little bit before the final horn.
Things that tell you an awful lot about what happened here: Marquette outshot Michigan 19-7 in the first quarter and trailed 2-1, while Michigan outshot Marquette 12-5 in the third quarter and outscored the Golden Eagles 4-1 in the frame. Marquette had chances to put Michigan into uncomfortable places early on in this game but couldn’t capitalize, but when the Wolverines had the chances to bury the Golden Eagles, they jumped all over it.
Carsen Brandt and Matt Caputo tied for the team lead in points here as the only two guys to get more than one. Both had two, with Caputo assisting twice and Brandt scoring twice. Brady Nicholas led the field players with three ground balls, while Ty Ambush tied him as he went 8-for-18 on faceoffs in this game.
Highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:
Up Next: Well, things aren’t getting easier. Marquette will be off until next weekend when they will host Notre Dame for the second game of the season. First draw is set for 2pm Central. The Fighting Irish haven’t played a game yet and won’t until they get to Milwaukee, although they did host Utah and Air Force for exhibitions back on January 23 and 25. Notre Dame was ranked #8 in the preseason Inside Lacrosse media poll.
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Category: General Sports
