PHOTO GALLERY

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – It was a very entertaining, back-and-forth, men's lacrosse showdown with Ohio Northern Saturday afternoon, under the bright sun of Memorial Stadium and in front of the strongest crowd in quite some time.

By the final horn, it was Otterbein emerging with an impressive and hard fought 10-8 triumph over the Polar Bears in a critical Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) game. ONU had won the initial matchup between the schools earlier this spring, an 8-7 slugfest in Ada that did not count toward the league standings.

This one did, however, and it improved the Cardinals to 5-2 overall and 4-1 against the OAC. The Polar Bears, in the middle of a nasty stretch against some league powers, drops their third game by three goals or less.

HOW IT PLAYED OUT:

• A game of runs began with Ohio Northern scoring three times by the 7:30 mark of the first quarter.
   
• Otterbein settled in and embarked on a wild 6-0 run that spanned into the earl second quarter, featuring two goals from both Nick Asuan and Dekaider Jackson.
   
• Fittingly, ONU rebounded for another three-goal sequence to force a 6-0 deadlock at intermission.
   
• Both sides traded goals in a lower-scoring third quarter, where Otterbein's man-down unit was able to kill a pair of penalties.
   
• The Cardinals kept ONU off the scoreboard across the final 20 minutes of game time, and tallied the difference-making scores. Aidan Moore converted a man-up goal, follow by Xander Seal providing the exclamation mark with 3:41 left on his second behind-the-back score of the day.
   

NOTABLE STATS:

• A very balanced Otterbein attack saw four players at three points; Seal, Asuan, Jackson and Logan Fenech.
   
• Both goalies played admirably, as Cole Zaferakis (12) and Zach Groene (11) both made double-digit stops in the cage.
   
• Max Graham and Eddie McDonald combined to win 13 of 22 faceoffs for Otterbein, with Nick Wile corralling five ground balls throughout the contest.
   
• Polar Bear standout Cameron Marous finished with a game-high four points, but not much came easy for the ONU attack. 

 
NEXT WEEK:

Otterbein will stay on campus to continue a three-game homestand, playing Wilmington in a "non-conference" game Wednesday evening.