The DU-Marquette men’s lacrosse game was delayed by lightning and inclement weather for over two hours from a planned 7:00 pm start at Peter Barton Stadium Friday night. A handful of fans remained to watch the soggy marathon as Denver owned the second half, coasting to a 15-9 win.

The win adds to first-year head coach Matt Brown Big EAST regular season conference crown (11-2, 5-0) and DU stands as the top seed heading into the Big EAST Tournament with semifinals Thursday at Villanova. The finals will be held on Saturday afternoon.

DU’s Alec Stathakis started the scoring with an unassisted draw and goal to start the game. After Marquette pulled even, Ty Hussey got a feed from JJ Sillstrop to double up Denver’s advantage, 2-1. With four minutes left in the quarter, MU’s Nolan Garcia found twine. In the final two minutes, AJ Mercurio and Cody Malawski scored to double up the Golden Eagles 4-2.

Each team collected three goals in the second quarter. DU’s Richie Connell scored a pair of goals for Denver and Malawski made the score sheet again for DU to complete the soggy first 30 minutes, 7-5.

Denver settled into the second half with two quick strikes from Noah Manning and Connell. A Malawski snipe, his third of the night, doubled up Marquette, 10-5. A minute later, Michel Lampert scored to extend the lead. Two minutes later, after keeping the ball in the offensive end, Denver won a ground ball battle and Stephen Avery fed Mic Kelly, 12-5, and the rout was on. When the smoke cleared, DU had outscored Marquette 5-0 in the quarter, winning five of six faceoffs to take full control.

Lampert and Manning scored in the fourth quarter to build a 14-6 edge and head coach Matt Brown sat Stathakis for the night to avoid any chance of injury on the soggy turf. Denver emptied the bench and coasted from there, 15-9, final.

Denver had six more shots on goal, eight more ground balls and four more faceoffs than Marquette to control possession in the win.

Following the game, after 11:00 pm, DU’s seniors were recognized.