Box Score
OBERLIN, Ohio – A flare for the dramatic continued following the Otterbein men's lacrosse team Tuesday night on the road, as the Cardinals played their third one-goal game in the past four outings.
This time around, it would be Otterbein that found a way to narrowly emerge by using a late 4-0 run to slip past the host Yeomen, 13-12, at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex.
The Cards, dropping overtime games to Albion and Kenyon in recent weeks, improve to 4-5 on the season ahead of a matchup with cross-town rival Capital on Friday night. Start time for that contest inside Memorial Stadium is set for 7 p.m.
Oberlin (5-4) opened strong with a pair of early goals, but Otterbein settled in to embark on a 7-1 run that spanned into the midway point of the second quarter. Junior middie
Joe Sanfillipo directed the strong spurt by distributing four assists before halftime.
Otterbein eventually carried an 8-5 advantage into the break, but the host Yeomen stormed out to begin the second half on a 6-1 run of its own to gain control. Oberlin outscored Otterbein 5-1 in the third period, and then found itself leading 11-9 after an unassisted tally very early in the fourth.
The Cards were down but certainly not out, getting goals from
Chandler Swartz and
Jake Grundey sandwiched between a pair from leading scorer
Connor Dziewit to vault ahead for good. The final score from Dziewit came at the 3:09 mark and gave the squad a two-goal cushion.
Oberlin clawed back to within a possession on a goal with 39 seconds left, but Otterbein freshman
Jordan Tobler was able to snag a ground ball on the ensuing faceoff to help clinch the night.
Dziewit (5G, 1A) led the way with six points while Swartz (4G, 1A) and Sanfillipo (5A) were right there as well. Defenseman
Adam Grumman was solid on the back line with three caused turnovers and five ground balls.
Sophomore
Jason McDonald won a healthy 17 of 28 faceoffs and saw classmate
Justin McKee secure a game-high seven ground balls. Goalie
Matt Niemi had six saves.
The Cards committed just two 30-second penalties while the hosts were whistled six times overall. Oberlin was 0 for 2 on the extra-man opportunities compared to a 2 for 6 Cardinal output.
John Sutherland and Ian McCague each registered hat tricks for the home side.
