Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Birmingham-Southern HighlightsHUNTINGDON, Ala. – The Otterbein men's lacrosse team tallied a pair of wins during its 2015 spring break trip, holding off Birmingham-Southern College, 12-8, before dominating Huntingdon by a score of 13-4.
The Cardinals (3-1) scored three-straight times early on against Birmingham, only to see the Panthers respond with a 3-0 spurt of their own to tie the game. Both sides settled in to a see-saw battle, locking up at ties of 4-4 and 5-5 before Otterbein embarked on a four-goal run to open a 9-5 advantage.
The Panthers scored to stop the Cardinal run, but a goal from Matt Isele to end the third, followed by a man-up score from Alex Titus in the fourth quarter helped put the game out of reach.
Junior Robbie Guilano was fantastic again for the Cardinals, scoring five times and assisting on another goal to lead all scorers. Senior Mike Sullivan tallied five points, Connor Dziewit had three and Connor Baak contributed two.
Faceoff-specialist Carlos Salazar controlled the game, winning 18 of 22 opportunities at the 'X', and collecting 10 ground balls in the process, to help Otterbein dominate possession throughout.
The Cards gave a strong defensive performance in the first half on Thursday against Huntingdon, keeping the Hawks scoreless over the entire first half and building a 7-0 lead.
Hayden Novicki found Derek Hohn for a goal to begin the third quarter, and Otterbein never looked back in tallying the one-sided victory. The Cardinals forced Huntingdon into 21 turnovers and collected 37 ground balls in the process. Otterbein was a near-perfect 19 of 20 on clear attempts.
Sullivan and Guilano each finished with a game-best three goals while Brandon Stroup had his best offensive performance of the young season, scoring twice and setting up three others. Baak scored another two goals as well.
Otterbein will return to action Wednesday evening, hosting Mount St. Joseph at 7 p.m. inside Memorial Stadium.
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