ALBION, Mich. – Recent history in the series between Otterbein and Albion proved true once again on Saturday afternoon, as the Cardinals and Britons played yet another narrow contest on the lacrosse field.

Unfortunately, for the third time in those showdowns, it was Albion finding a way to stand on top by churning out a 9-7 outcome in the season opener for both teams. The Britons emerged 12-11 in overtime to begin last spring, and then 9-8 in triple overtime back during the 2018 campaign.

THE RUNDOWN:

Albion built leads of 5-1 and 7-2 this time around, holding the five-goal margin midway through the second quarter. Otterbein's lone scores in the timeframe were promising newcomer Jack Regruth finding senior Aidan Moore in the first, and then Dom Dean (making his long-awaited debut as a Cardinal) ripping one home as the second quarter unfolded.

Otterbein settled in and bridged the halftime well behind consecutive goals from junior Carson Rainone. He scored with 2:52 remaining in the second and then again just 37 seconds into the third frame, allowing the Cards to stay within shouting distance at 7-4.

The two sides would trade momentum swings from there, with a pesky Otterbein bunch not going anywhere in closing within 8-6 as plenty of time remained in the fourth. Dean scored another unassisted before Regruth notched his first college goal off a feed from defenseman Jackson Jerdonek.

Two more goals were exchanged from there, Timmy Salinas for the hosts and then co-captain Nathan Lewis for the Cards, in a span that saw four tallies in less than two and a half minutes.

Wildly enough, after the game had already seen a 10-minute scoreless stretch to end the third, another dry spell happened across the final nine-plus of the day. Four decent attempts by the Cards were saved heading home, including a second/latter from the stick of Lewis with about 90 seconds remaining.

STATS THAT MATTERED:

• A whopping 101 shots were attempted on the day from both sides, as both goalies combined to account for 33 saves.
   
• Otterbein goalie Luke Farthing, who earned OAC Defensive Player of the Week last year after his career-high 18 stops vs. Albion, came up with another 17.
   
• The Cards committed 12 more turnovers than the Britons and finished just over 50% on clear attempts, while the home side rested a more efficient 24 of 29.
   
• Faceoffs have been made a priority heading into this new campaign, and some positive results were yielded behind a 10 of 12 effort from Max Graham (eight ground balls). Davis Tanaka captured another three.
   
• Andrew Miller tallied a hat trick for the Brits.

MOVING FORWARD:

• The Cardinals will return home and look to quickly shrug off this loss come midweek, traveling to nearby College of Wooster for an early-evening contest on Wednesday at 6 p.m.