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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein men's lacrosse team finished off its regular-season schedule with a nice win Saturday afternoon at a wet and rainy Memorial Stadium, turning back Mount Union by a score of 12-6 as part of Senior Day.
The Cardinals, concluding their regular season at 11-6 overall and 5-2 against the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), will be the third seed in next week's four-team OAC Tournament and will travel to play No. 2-seed Baldwin Wallace on Wednesday evening. The Yellow Jackets handed Otterbein a 10-7 loss earlier this season.
Otterbein wasted no time jumping ahead of Mount Union (9-5, 4-3 OAC), scoring early and often en route to building a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.
Sophomore
Connor Dziewit scored three times in the opening period, which ended with an exclamation mark as senior faceoff specialist
Carlos Salazar scored his second-career goal on a shifty catch and reverse, over-the-shoulder shot into the upper 90 of the goal. Dziewit assisted on the play.
Otterbein carried a 9-2 edge into intermission behind six first-half points from Dziewit, but the Purple Raiders hung within striking distance and only trailed 11-5 entering the final period. The lead would ultimately be enough for the Cards, who got an early goal from freshman
Joe Sanfillipo in the final frame.
The two sides combined for 78 shots on the day and were almost deadlocked on faceoffs, with Mount winning 11 of 21. Dziewit matched his career-high with five goals, and had seven total points, to lead a balanced Cardinal attack. Nine different players had at least one point.
Hogan Harris scored three times for Mount Union, which got nine saves from goalie Collin Peters. Otterbein goalie
James Gundling stopped 10 shots to earn the win before giving way to
Matt Niemi in the closing minutes.
Prior to start time, Otterbein recognized 10 graduating seniors;
Marcus Willis,
Alex Titus,
Robbie Guiliano,
Derek Hohn, Salazar,
Brandon Self,
Adam Norris,
Robert Simmons,
Alex Umble and
Connor Baak. The class has achieved three-straight NCAA appearances, back-to-back OAC Tournament titles and an OAC regular-season crown.
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