The No. 15/13 Marquette University men’s lacrosse team jumped out to a 10-goal lead and picked up its NCAA-leading seventh victory, 14-6, over Mercer on Sunday afternoon at Mercer University Stadium.
The Golden Eagles (7-0) topped their win total from last season with the victory and are the only team in NCAA Division I with seven wins in 2015. Graduate attackman Jordan Greenfield and sophomore midfielder Ryan McNamara led the way with three points on a pair of goals and one assist apiece, while 13 players recorded at least a point for Marquette.
Mercer (0-5) was paced by two goals and an assist from sophomore Chris Rahill.
The Bears got on the board first as freshman Matt Quinn found the back of the net at the 11:35 mark of the first quarter. Marquette would go on to close out the first half with nine-straight goals with two apiece coming from Clarke, Greenfield and McNamara.
Clarke scored the first goal of the afternoon for the Golden Eagles and Pat Townsend posted his second of the season just under a minute later as MU took its first lead with 6:51 left in the first.
McNamara scored the next two tallies as the Golden Eagles continued to build their lead. His first of the day came as he cut down the center of the field and fired one to the upper right corner past Mercer goalie Mike Nugent. McNamara’s next goal came with 1:48 remaining in the first as he beat his defender outside, dodged back up field and beat Nugent low while changing hands.
Greenfield’s first goal came in the waning seconds of the first on a man-down situation when Zach Barr raced downfield to feed Greenfield for his first career assist. The second goal from Greenfield gave the Golden Eagles an 8-1 edge with 1:21 left in the first half on a backhand bounce from about 10 yards in front of the cage.
Marquette, which used most of its roster during the second half, built a lead as large as 11-1 on a Conor Gately goal with 10:48 remaining in the third quarter. Gately’s goal gives him 86 career points, just three from Tyler Melnyk’s program record of 89 points
