MLAX meets No. 9 Ohio State in the Patriot Cup

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team heads to Dallas to take on No. 9 Ohio State in the Patriot Cup on Saturday, March 2 at Southern Methodist University's Gerald J. Ford Stadium.

The game will be the second of four contests played at the venue on Saturday, joining two high school games and a matchup pitting the SMU and Arkansas club teams.

The Patriot Cup benefits the HEADstrong Foundation and Bridge Lacrosse. In last year's event at The Star in Frisco, Texas, MU's BIG EAST counterpart Villanova knocked off eventual NCAA Champion Yale, 10-9, in overtime.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children and can be purchased online.

Saturday's contest will air live on the Lax Sports Network at noon Central time and can be accessed online at laxsn.com, through the iOS or Android application or through streaming devices, Apple TV, Xbox, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast.

GAME DETAILS
Marquette (2-1) vs. No. 9/9 Ohio State (4-0)
Gerald J. Ford Stadium (Dallas, Texas)
Saturday, March 2 at noon CT
TICKETS

LIVE COVERAGE
VIDEO | STATS | GAME NOTES (PDF) | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

MARQUETTE (2-1): The Golden Eagles suffered a 15-12 setback at home against Detroit Mercy on Feb. 23 despite posting a program-record 51 shots. Junior midfielder Peter Henkhaus scored a career-best five goals, but Marquette won just 11 of 30 faceoffs. Henkhaus leads the squad with nine goals on the season, surpassing his 2018 total of seven through the first three games. Senior John Wagner has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) and a total of seven Golden Eagles have at least six points.

OHIO STATE (4-0): The Buckeyes remained perfect on the season with a 16-13 victory over Bucknell last weekend in Columbus as freshman Jack Myers scored seven goals and added an assist. Myers sits second on the squad with 16 points, behind Jack Jasinski (17 points) and Tre Leclaire, who each have a team-high 13 goals. Ohio State also boasts one of the nation's premier face-off specialists in sophomore Justin Inacio, who is 60-of-97 (61.9 percent) on the season and won 20-of-27 in the win over Bucknell.

KEY STORYLINES:

The Golden Eagles are 2-4 all-time against the Buckeyes, with both of their wins coming at neutral sites in 2015 (Louisville) and 2018 (Pontiac, Michigan).
MU and OSU have met in each of the last four seasons as part of the Midwest Lacrosse Classic.
Marquette's first regular season game in program history came against OSU in Columbus at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, an 18-8 loss to the Buckeyes.
MU claimed las season's meeting 8-7 on a John Wagner overtime winner. It was one of five game winners last season for Wagner, all of which came in overtime or the final 10 seconds of regulation.
Marquette is 0-3 when unranked and facing a ranked Ohio State squad.
MU has just one native Texan on the roster in freshman goalie Carver Skarnulis, who is the second Texan to suit up for the Golden Eagles in program history. Marquette has no one from Ohio on its roster.
Fourteen players have scored a goal for Marquette through three games and seven have at least six points.
The Marquette program and head coach Joe Amplo are closing in on 50 victories all-time. The Golden Eagles are 48-46 in their seventh season.

SERIES HISTORY: Ohio State leads 4-2
MU leads 2-0 at neutral sites
2/23/13                A             L, 18-8
2/27/14                A             L, 11-7
3/1/15                  N W, 10-9 (Louisville, Ky.)
3/4/16 A             L, 12-8
3/3/17 H             L, 12-6
3/2/18 N             W, 8-7 (OT) (Pontiac, Mich.)

NOTABLE CAREER PEFORMANCES AGAINST OSU

Anthony Orsini: 1 GP, 2g, 1a
Noah Richard: 2 GP, 3 gb, 1-of-2 FO
Tanner Thomson: 1 GP, 3g, 1 gb
John Wagner: 3 GP, 2a, 1a, 2 gb

MU OFFENSE SHARING THE LOAD

Marquette has displayed depth on the offensive end as 14 players have found the back of the net, and three others recording assists. John Wagner has eight points and Tanner Thomson seven, but it has been the production of Marquette's offensive midfield and rope unit that has been impressive early on. MU's first midfield line of Anthony Orsini, Andrew Romagnoli and Peter Henkhaus have combined for 21 points through three games, while LSM Noah Richard (2g, 1a) along with defensive midfielders Luke Anderson (1g, 2a), Logan Kreinz (1g) and Nick Singleton (1a) have provided offensive contributions. Senior defensemen Jackson Ehlert (1g, 1a) also recorded the first points of his career in the season opener against Bellarmine.

RICHARD THE BIG EAST'S TOP LSM

Senior Noah Richard was selected unanimously as the BIG EAST's top long-stick midfielder in 2018 and earned unanimous recognition on this year's All-BIG EAST Preseason Team. Richard tied for the team lead with 48 ground balls, marking the highest ground ball total in the BIG EAST for non-faceoff specialists. He averaged 5.7 ground balls per contest in the six games after returning from an early season injury last year, an absence in the lineup that coincided with a three-game losing skid for MU. Richard sits fifth in program history in career ground balls and sixth in caused turnovers.
Richard earned his first career BIG EAST Midfielder of the Week honor on Feb. 11 following MU's season opening win over Bellarmine. He scored and posted an assist against the Knights, while also picking up a ground ball.

'ROMO' RETURNS TO MARQUETTE

After redshirting his freshman season at MU in 2015 before spending the last three years at Delaware, midfielder Andrew Romagnoli rejoined the Golden Eagles this past summer as a graduate transfer. Romagnoli posted 91 points on 60 goals and 31 assists in 34 career games with the Blue Hens in just over two seasons of competition. He scored 21 goals as a redshirt freshman in 2016 and set a single-game career-high with six goals against VMI while earning CAA All-Freshman Team honors. Romagnoli followed that up with a 34-goal, 53-point campaign in 2017 and posted seven points in five games as a redshirt junior last season. The 5-foot-11 attackman finished the 2017 season second in the CAA with 3.53 points per game and recorded seven hat tricks that year.
Four and a half years after first stepping foot on the MU campus, Romagnoli scored his first goal in a Marquette uniform in the season opener against Bellarmine. His goal was the first of the game for the Golden Eagles, who went on to a 15-9 victory.
He also posted four points (2 goals, 2 assists) at Jacksonville and earned BIG EAST Midfielder of the Week recognition on Feb. 18 for his play.

FORMER WISCONSIN HIGH SCHOOL PLAYERS NOW DOT THE ROSTER

Four Golden Eagles played at least part of their high school careers in the state of Wisconsin and three of those are expected to see significant action in 2019. Moey Lardy became the first Wisconsin high school player to play for MU when he made his NCAA debut last season at Detroit. Lardy, whose parents now live in California, spent his first two years of high school at Cedarburg and played for Ozaukee.
Logan Kreinz became the first former Wisconsin high school player to score a goal for the Golden Eagles in the third quarter of the season opener against Bellarmine. Lardy, Schmid and Arnett also played with the latter two making their NCAA debuts.
Former Wisconsin High School Players on MU:
- Quintin Arnett (Waukesha, Wis./Arrowhead H.S.)
- Logan Kreinz (Delafield, Wis./Kettle Moraine H.S./Portsmouth Abbey (R.I.)
- Moey Lardy (Cedarburg, Wis./Cedarburg H.S. (Ozaukee)/Trinity-Pawling (N.Y.))
- Jordan Schmid (Waukesha, Wis./Kettle Moraine H.S.)

FOGO AND GOAL QUESTIONS

Marquette entered the 2019 season with a couple of glaring holes due to graduation losses of three-year starters and All-BIG EAST performers in goalie Cole Blazer and face-off specialists Zachary Melillo. The Golden Eagles are working their way to a solution at both spots as the season progresses:
- All four MU goalies played in the season opener, but sophomore John Hulsman started and played 37 minutes in net. Hulsman, who finished 2018 fourth in NCAA Division I in save percentage at Bellarmine, made six saves and allowed five goals.
- Jared Hershman started at the face-off dot against Bellarmine for MU and won 11-of-16 draws. Freshman Thomas Washington made his NCAA debut against BU and won all but one faceoff he took (8-of-9).