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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – In one of the wildest and most intense games across recent memory, the Otterbein men's lacrosse team battled Baldwin Wallace right down to the wire throughout another rainstorm Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

The regular-season finale for both teams, taking on a late start of 8 p.m. after Otterbein hosted the two-day Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Track and Field Championships, held major postseason implications and attracted a strong crowd of supports despite the inclement weather.

In the end, the visiting Yellow Jackets were able to hold on for a 17-15 decision and lock up the No. 2 seed in next week's four-team OAC Tournament. BW improves to 14-2 overall and 8-1 in league play.

Otterbein drops to 11-6 on the season and 6-3 amongst the OAC standings, putting them in a three-way tie with John Carroll and Ohio Northern. All teams are 1-1 within the mini group, leading to a goal-differential tiebreaker for the same games against one another. JCU emerges in that calculation to get the No. 3 seed, taking Otterbein and Ohio Northern back to the head-to-head matchup.

Unfortunately, ONU receives the fourth and final seed in next week's OAC Tournament as a result of its 13-8 win over the Cards on Wednesday. This marks the second-straight season that Otterbein has missed out on the postseason event due to a tiebreaker scenario.


HOW IT HAPPENED AGAINST BW:

Both teams traded goals in a high-scoring first quarter, which ended at a 5-5 deadlock after two Yellow Jacket goals in the closing seconds.

BW closing quarters strong would remain a theme, as Otterbein held serious momentum in the second period after a four-goal run put the Cards ahead 10-7 with 3:51 remaining before halftime. Included in the rally were two man-up goals from Jake Grundey and a rare man-down goal by Joe Sanfillipo.

Baldwin Wallace responded mightily, scoring three-straight times to enter the break locked at 10-10 before netting four more to begin the third quarter. All in all, it was a 7-0 run that kept Otterbein scoreless for roughly 12 minutes of game time.

Sanfillipo stopped the bleeding momentarily with another goal but BW countered yet again. Blake Bower eventually scored with nine seconds left in the frame, giving the visitors a 16-11 lead with one quarter left.

Otterbein's defense rose to the occasion with its back against the wall, keeping BW scoreless for almost the entire fourth quarter and giving the offense some life. Sanfillipo scored twice more to launch the fourth, and then goals from Drew McDonald and Judson Huston followed to leave the deficit at just 16-15 with 1:23 on the clock.

Baldwin Wallace would narrowly escape after winning the ensuing faceoff, darting in to seal the deal with an insurance goal, winning the next faceoff and running out the clock.
Sanfillipo (4G, 2A) tallied six points in his final college game and finishes with 206 for his career, leaving him tied for second all-time in program history with Mikey O'Neal. Grundey tied for a game-best five goals in his culminating outing as a Cardinal, all coming in the first half.

Sanfillipo, Grundey, McDonald, Mike Roman, Adam Grumman, Josh Bonavita and Logan Murphy were all recognized pregame for their contributions to the program. Grumman, who graduates as the all-time leader in caused turnovers, played impressively against the the nation's leading scorer in Chad Steinwachs, who tallied just three points on limited looks.

Roman went exactly 50 percent (16 of 32) on faceoffs in the close back-and-forth affair, with wing Jordan Tobler corralling a game-best seven ground balls. Roman had six himself.

The Yellow Jackets finished with a 43-33 shot advantage, forced seven more turnovers than they committed and had five goals from both Ben Kubiak and Blake Bower. Both goalies made some big saves throughout despite the high-scoring final, as Zachary Groene (Otterbein) stopped 10 shots and Trent Davis (BW) ended with nine.