Sam Kuhn

Aaron Levy

After Wittenberg University pulled within one midway through the fourth quarter, The College of Wooster closed with three unanswered goals to defeat the rival Tigers 13-9 Saturday afternoon in Springfield, Ohio, and secure a spot in the North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Lacrosse Tournament.

With one regular season game remaining next Saturday, Wooster (10-5, 5-2 NCAC) has already clinched a top-four regular season finish in the conference, and thus will be part of the NCAC tourney for the second time in its four-year history.

The Fighting Scots nearly led wire-to-wire, running off four goals in a row to take a 4-1 lead, but Wittenberg (7-6, 3-4 NCAC) kept it close throughout, highlighted by accounting for three of the first four tallies of the fourth to cut the score to 10-9 with 8:25 to play.

Erik Barroso won the ensuing face-off and Wooster maintained possession for a couple of minutes, then the Tigers got the ball back and put a shot on Aaron Levy, but the senior 'keeper was there for one of his 20 saves.

On the next possession, Sam Kuhn scored for the fifth time, assisted by CJ Polak, as the Scots regained the momentum, going ahead 11-9 at the 3:46 mark.

Another critical face-off went to Barroso, and shortly thereafter, Wooster took advantage of an extra-man situation, with Polak finding Ian Brim for the goal and a 12-9 advantage.

The Scots won another face-off, ran the clock down some, and Alexander Bloom connected to put the finishing touches on the big win.

Matt Parmelee helped fuel Wooster's early success. He scored two goals during the aforementioned 4-0 run and notched a hat trick late in the second quarter that put the Scots up 5-3 at halftime.

During the third quarter, which included a couple of Kuhn tallies, Wooster edged ahead a little further at 9-6.

Statistically, Kuhn led all players with five goals coming on seven shots and Polak had a career-high five-point game on one goal and four assists. Also with multi-point outings were Josh Herold (2 assists), Parmelee (3 goals), and Nate Weltman (2 goals).

Levy's 20 saves were just one short of his career high, while Jack Gilio and Kuhn were credited with six groundballs apiece.

The Scots will close out the regular season next Saturday at No. 11 ranked Ohio Wesleyan University (10-3, 5-1 NCAC).