Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse (1-7) suffered a crushing 17-10 defeat against Marist College (3-7) on Saturday.

Junior attacker Jake Tellers opened up the game for the Bobcats, scoring his first of three goals after 75 seconds of first-quarter play. It took less than 30 seconds for junior attacker Jojo Pirreca to respond for the Red Foxes, scoring his first of four goals.

From then, the game turned into a tit-for-tat contest before Quinnipiac found itself down two in the second quarter. Senior long-stick midfielder CJ Gallagher tied the game up for the Bobcats with seven minutes to go in the half, but a goal by senior midfielder Hunter Embury gave the Red Foxes the 6-5 lead going into the half.

The Bobcats began the second half asleep on their feet, spending the first six minutes of the third quarter constantly turning the ball over with little effort on defense. Quinnipiac ultimately conceded seven goals to the Red Foxes throughout the

By the time the Bobcats’ offense got going late in the third, it was too late. Marist had already built up a five-goal lead. The match quickly turned into a shot-for-shot contest that kept the Bobcats out of reach in the fourth quarter.

Tellers stood out from the other Bobcats with two assists alongside his hat trick. Seven other Bobcats would score a goal, but senior midfielder Will Abbot and junior attacker John DeLucia provided Quinnipiac’s other three assists, with two and one respectively.

Marist’s offense was electric. They passed the ball well and it seemed like every shot they took wound up in the back of the net. Junior attacker Jojo Pirreca and senior attacker Kellen Pulera combined for eight goals, with Pirreca also contributing two assists. Redshirt senior midfielder Jason Intermesoli provided three assists on top of his two goals.

Senior goaltender Nick DiMuccio had a rough game against Marist, conceding 17 goals.Throughout the game, it seemed like for every save DiMuccio would make, another two shots would go past him into the net.

Alex Zomerfeld, Quinnipiac’s assistant head coach, was not a fan of how the team played.

“There was a little sloppy play throughout the whole game,” Zomerfeld said. “We had a slow start to the third quarter which kinda opened up the lead for Marist and unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize and claw our way back to the game.”

Despite the team’s overall poor play this season, Zomerfeld tried to keep a positive mindset in the locker room, saying the Bobcats face three must win MAAC games remaining this season.

“We’re trying to tell our guys ‘one play at a time,’” Zomerfeld said. “Fortunately, with how poorly we’ve been playing this year we still have a fighting chance, so we’re getting our guys fired up for that.”

Quinnipiac faced a number of issues throughout the game. It was 13/30 in face-offs and turned over the ball 19 times, often in scoring position or right in front of its own goaltender. In addition, the Bobcats played six-and-a-half minutes down a man due to penalties, which led to two Marist goals.

The Bobcats play their next game on the road against conference rival Canisius College (2-8) April 9, at 12 p.m.