Box Score Photo GalleryWESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University men's lacrosse team tallied an impressive home win Wednesday evening, turning back Kenyon College by a score of 10-7 inside Memorial Stadium.
Otterbein (5-3) looked as if it had gotten on the scoreboard first when Hayden Novicki found Connor Dziewit for a fast-break score, but the goal was waved off after the referee ruled a Cardinal player was released from the penalty box too early.
Kenyon (4-4) took advantage and grabbed a 1-0 lead, but Otterbein found momentum behind the dominant play of junior Carlos Salazar at the faceoff-X. Salazar captured 10-straight attempts to begin the game, giving the Cardinals the opportunity to go on a nice run and seize a 4-1 lead.
Kenyon netted a score with 27 seconds remaining before halftime, but Otterbein opened the second half strong when Connor Baak found Robbie Guiliano for a goal, followed by Baak scoring one himself less than two minutes later.
The Lords got the deficit to within 6-4 near the end of the third period, but Otterbein answered the bell again with three-straight goals to widen the cushion to five goals midway through the fourth.
Otterbein goalie James Gundling was outstanding from start to finish, tying his career-high with 23 saves in the cage.
"James was coming off a couple of tough outings, but he really stepped up tonight," head coach Colin Hartnett said. "He played the best game I've ever seen him play and held on strong in the fourth quarter when they ripped off a lot of shots. 23 saves is an outstanding number."
Salazar, entering the week ranked 17th nationally in face-off percentage, was just as good in the middle of the field. He turned in perhaps the best game of his career by taking 17 of 21 faceoffs, finishing with a game-high 11 groundballs and dominating all three players Kenyon threw at him.
"That game is a different story tonight without James and Carlos," Hartnett continued. "It was hard for us to give just one game ball out afterwards, so we picked both of them. Carlos allowed us to keep possession and give us the opportunities we needed."
Guiliano tallied a game-high four goals while Baak and Mike Sullivan each finished with two goals and two helpers. Brandon Stroup also netted two goals for an Otterbein offense that needed only 30 shots to reach double-digit scoring.
Otterbein committed twice as many turnovers and saw Kenyon rip off 54 shots throughout (23 in the final quarter), but the Lords got just five saves on their defensive end from goalie Patrick Shevelson. J.T. Meyer led the Kenyon offense with two goals.
"We had one-goal games with Kenyon the past two years, so we knew that this would be a tough test coming in," Hartnett said. "We managed to fix some things and produce a really good result."
The Cardinals will remain at home to finish off the week with a Saturday afternoon matchup against Adrian College. Start time is slated for 1 p.m.
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