Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

BRADENTON, Fla. – The Otterbein men's lacrosse team dropped a pair of games on its spring-break trip down in Florida, falling 13-7 against St. John Fisher College and then 15-5 at the hands of Eastern University (Pa.).

Game 1

The Cardinals were off to a good starts against St. John Fisher (2-0) to begin the trip at Philip Jones Field in Clearwater, taking an early 3-2 lead after senior Robbie Guiliano scored three-straight times in the latter part of the first quarter.

St. John Fisher settled in from there, tallying the final goal of the opening period and then scoring all four goals seen in the second en route to an 7-3 halftime advantage.

SJF would score three-straight times in the first-six minutes of the second half, all part of an 8-0 run, to pull away and create enough distance from Otterbein down the stretch.

St. John Fisher only outshot Otterbein 33-24 (19-17 on goal), but captured 13 of 22 faceoffs and got 10 saves from goalie Tanner Swan. Four different SJF players tallied multi-score games to lead a balanced offensive effort.

Guiliano's three goals led the way for Otterbein while sophomore Connor Dziewit added two of his own. Senior defenseman Adam Norris caused three turnovers on the back line and sophomore goalie Matt Niemi, making his first-career start in place of James Gundling, finished with six saves.
 
Game 2

Otterbein once again led early in its second outing, this time opening a 2-1 lead midway through the first quarter against Eastern at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. The Eagles had struck first with a goal less than three minutes in before the Cards countered with goals from Dziewit and senior Connor Baak.

Eastern would lead 4-3 after the first 15 minutes of action before the second quarter ultimately doomed the Cards again, getting outscored 5-0 in the period and entering halftime down 9-3.

Otterbein got goals from Guiliano and Dziewit early in the third quarter but would unfortunately not have enough in the tank to make the full climb back.

The tandem of Bryan Goetz and Desmond Decker paced Eastern throughout, combining for nine goals on 16 total shot attempts. The Eagles finished with a 38-19 shot margin.

Eastern captured 18 of the 28 faceoffs and committed just seven turnovers in the contest, compared to 19 for the Cardinals.
Niemi and Gundling split the game for Otterbein, with Niemi going the entire first half and Gundling coming on after the break. The two combined for 12 saves.

Otterbein will have eight days off to regroup before hosting Albion College (Mich.) on Saturday, March 12 at Memorial Stadium. Start time is scheduled for 2 p.m.