Will Noel

Ethan Scully

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team erupted for 12 second-period goals and reached 20 goals for the third time in as many home games as the Fighting Scots topped visiting Hiram College 21-9 on Saturday afternoon at John P. Papp Stadium.

In fact 11 of Wooster's (5-5, 2-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) goals in the second period were unanswered, and the score spree extened to 13 in the second half where sophomore Will Noel capped the stretch with his first goal of the season that made it 19-2 with 11:47 remaining in the third period.

Wooster roared out of the gates with the first five goals of the game, and needed just under nine minutes of play to get there. Junior Ian Brim zipped in a quick goal :35 into the contest, and later senior Matt Parmelee caught a feed in transition just before midfield and darted his way through the Terrier defense before finishing his 14th goal of the season.

Notable, junior Erik Barroso closed out the early 5-0 stretch with his first goal of the season.

Later, Wooster's depth was on full display as nine different Scots recorded a goal during the 13-goal stretch. Junior Alexander Bloom was one of the few who netted multiple goals in the run, including his co-team-leading 19th of the season that came with 8:58 to go in the first half, and at the time, that made it a 14-2 game.

Speaking of depth, junior Sam Kuhn dished out his 10th assist of the season with 11:12 to go in the first half when he set-up Parmelee's man-up goal. Kuhn joined seniors Josh Herold (13), CJ Polak (12) and Parmelee (12) with double-digit assists, and the last time the Scots had four student-athletes in a season with double-digit helpers was 2006 when Hisham Hassan had 22, Mark Weschler had 17, and Ben Abbott and Shawn Handy had 13 each.

Defensively, junior Jack Gilio scooped up six groundballs and caused five turnovers – all before halftime – while the Scots recorded 59 groundballs and 21 caused turnovers on the afternoon. Other leaders in the two statistical categories included Barroso with five groundballs, Kuhn and Noel with four groundballs each, and sophomore Ethan Scully with three caused turnovers.

Sticking with the defense, Wooster only allowed two goals in the first half, and four of the Scots' five wins in 2017 have featured phenomenal first-half defense as the Black & Gold have now allowed three or fewer goals in the first 30 minutes of action four times this season.

Hunter Jenkins and Tim Stucky netted hat tricks for Hiram (2-3, 0-2 NCAC) while Liam Osborne and McNair Shaw combined for 17 saves.

Next, Wooster remains at home to take on Otterbein University (3-5) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.