Matt Magoon

The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team fought back from a four-goal halftime deficit to pull within two goals on four different occasions during the second half, but ultimately, 11th-ranked Denison University held off the Fighting Scots 10-7 in both teams' North Coast Athletic Conference openers Saturday afternoon at Granville, Ohio.

The Scots (3-3, 0-1 NCAC) struggled in the early goings against the Big Red (6-1, 1-0 NCAC), who came into the game ranked No. 11 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches poll, but Wooster began to trim the lead in the second half behind an offensive surge from newcomer Harry Kemp.

Trailing 6-2 coming out of the break, Kemp scored an unassisted goal less than four minutes into the third quarter, and then he scored again just 2:17 later on an assist from Steve Crozier that cut the deficit to 6-4.

From that point on, the Scots and Big Red traded goals the rest of the way. After Denison pushed its lead back to three at 7-4, Kemp scored his fourth of the game to make it 7-5. Then in the final minutes of the third quarter, Denison went up 8-5, only to see Patrick Schlick bring Wooster back within two (8-6).

Finally, Pat Henderson rifled in a goal on a dish from Matt Ranck with 5:23 left in the fourth quarter (9-7), but once again Denison responded with its own goal, and then held Wooster in check over the game's final moments.

Although the final score was close, the Big Red outshot Wooster by a substantial margin (47-18). Goalkeeper Matt Magoon kept the Scots in the game by making 20 saves, and also defensively, Dean Marchitelli stood out with three caused turnovers and four groundballs.

Otherwise, the stats were relatively even, except penalties, where the Scots committed nine compared to just one for Denison.

Wooster will look to rebound when it visits Hiram College (1-4, 1-0 NCAC) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.