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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Cardinal men's lacrosse team snapped its two-game losing skid with a 19-13 victory over Washington & Jefferson on Wednesday night at Memorial Stadium. Otterbein improves to 2-4 overall on the young season with a home matchup against Kenyon scheduled for next Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Junior Connor Dziewit was a force for the Cardinals offensively, netting seven goals in the game to finish just one shy of the program's single-game record set by Andrew Donatelli in 2013. Dziewit recently went over the 100-career point plateau over the weekend at Albion.

The Cardinals saw plenty of opportunities in the opening period after unloading 17 shots and scoring on two of them, with the first coming from sophomore Jake Grundey less than two minutes into the game. W&J knotted the score at the 10:33 mark, before Otterbein regained its lead with 6:44 remaining as sophomore Joe Sanfillipo assisted junior Anthony Spingola on a man-up goal for his fourth score of the year.

Dziewit then exploded offensively, netting six goals over the final 45 minutes of action including three of the team's four goals in the second frame. His first score came at the 11:28 mark of the second period to help Otterbein gain a 3-2 advantage, before the two teams swapped goals to keep the difference at one with just under eight minutes remaining.

Dziewit then fired two shots past the Presidents' goalkeeper over the final 7:25 of play, giving the Cards a 6-3 lead at the break. Otterbein owned a distinct 29-17 margin in shots through two frames, winning 8 of 11 faceoffs between sophomore Mike Roman and freshman Jason McDonald.

The second half got off to a wild start with 12 goals combined in the third quarter alone, as Dziewit carried his first-half scoring effort over by tacking on four more goals to his total. Sanfillipo opened the scoring run in the frame less than two minutes in with his eighth goal of the season, followed by Dziewit's score which boosted the cushion to 8-3.

W&J battled back with two-straight goals of its own within two minutes of one another, but Dziewit and freshman Mike Brendle regenerated the Cardinal lead to five goals with back-to-back scores.The Otterbein lead was never in jeopardy for the remainder of the contest, as multiple players got in on the team's final seven scores.

Otterbein finished the game with a 62-35 advantage in shots, thanks large in-part to McDonald accounting for 18 faceoff wins. The Cards captured 23 of 34 total showdowns at the 'X' as McDonald led all players with 10 ground balls. Goalie James Gundling had nine saves over the first half to get the win, before giving way to Connor Hinson and Matt Niemi.

Overall, the contest lasted two hours and 16 minutes and featured 17 combined penalties between the two sides. Ben Ward and Kyle Heinig both recorded hat tricks for Washington and Jefferson, which falls to 1-4 on the season.