WESTERVILLE, OHIO – The Otterbein University men’s lacrosse team began its season with victories over Hendrix College (AR), 15-8, and Fontbonne University (MO), 13-5, this past weekend in St. Louis, Missouri.
The team opened Saturday afternoon against Hendrix, and fell behind 1-0 early before rattling off seven consecutive goals to end the first period ahead 7-1.
Otterbein took a 9-3 lead into halftime, and remained in control throughout the second half en route to a 15-8 victory.
Freshman Andrew Donatelli scored an impressive six times in the win, while sophomore Alex Dowell scoring four goals and assisted on two others.
Sophomore Adam McGrath notched two goals, and Jason Paselk, Mikey O’Neal, and Conner Underwood also found the back of the net.
The Cardinals fell behind 1-0 again during Sunday’s matchup with host Fontbonne, but bounced back to take a 3-1 lead by the 7:23 mark of the opening period.
The Griffins would tie the game at 3-3 later in the period, but Otterbein found its stride, registering the next five goals to grab an 8-3 lead at the half.
Fontbonne tallied the first score in the third period, but the Cardinals widened the lead to 11-4 over the next four minutes and eventually played to a 13-5 victory.
Dowell led the way with three goals and one assist against the Griffins, while McGrath and freshman Pat Teynor each tallied two. Six other Cardinals also recorded a goal.
“It was important to get off to a good start this season, especially with some of the youth and inexperience we have on the team,” Head Coach Colin Hartnett said. “We beat both of these teams last season, but I thought we approached this weekend with much more confidence. We established large leads during both games, which is something we weren’t able to do last year.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Adam Hatchard came up with nine saves in the cage against Fontbonne, while freshman Ryan Kossoudji was successful on 16-of-20 face-offs.
“Whenever you can have a guy go 80 percent in face-offs, it almost becomes make it-take it,” said Hartnett. “When the possessions tilt themselves in our favor that much, it’s then easy to create offense.”
The Cards return home to host Centre College (KY) Saturday afternoon, 2 p.m., at Gahanna Lincoln High School. Although Centre is a first-year program, Hartnett knows his team cannot enter the matchup overly confident. The Colonels recently kicked off their inaugural season with an 18-1 victory over Hanover College (IN).
“We expect them to be pretty good,” Harnett said. “They have some pretty good players from the state of Kentucky, and we think it will be a good challenge for us.”
