Box Score

ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Otterbein men's lacrosse squad improved to 3-1 in league play on Saturday night following an 13-7 victory at Mount Union.

The Cardinals, now back to .500 at 6-6 overall, will return for a two-game homestand next week at Memorial Stadium beginning with a matchup against Wilmington on Tuesday night. Faceoff is set for 7:30 p.m. 

Both teams ended up playing even in the scoring column through the first half of action after Mount Union jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage less than four minutes in.

It was Otterbein though that had the last say in the opening period with three unanswered goals late in the frame, ignited Byatt score from  junior Joe Sanfillipo followed by two from senior Connor Dziewit to knot the score.

Dziewit carried his scoring effort into the second quarter, putting the Cardinals up 4-3 on the Raider for their first lead of the contest with just over nine minutes until halftime. 

Otterbein then sandwiched a pair of goals around a score by Mount Union in a span of a minute, as Sanfillipo found the back of the net for the second time in the game, this one off an assist from classmate Robby Fields, before senior Anthony Spingola made it 6-4 Cards. 

The Purple Raiders stormed back with consecutive goals down the stretch of the initial 30 minutes, the equalizer coming with one second remaining to make it 6-6 at the break.

The Cardinals dominated over the final two periods, outscoring the Raiders 7-1 including a span of six-straight to end the game with the scoring spree coming after the game was tied at seven apiece with 8:38 left in the third frame.

Sanfillipo and Fields added two goals each to their credit over that span, while junior Drew McDonald also got in on the scoring action, and Dziewit notched his game-best fifth goal. Dziewit now has exactly 200 points in his career, making him just the second player in program history to reach the plateau, and now sits six points shy of tying Mikey O'Neal's program record (206).

Senior Matt Niemi stopped six shots in goal for the Cards in his fourth win of the season. Otterbein finished the game with a distinct 45-28 advantage in shots.