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| Jack Gilio |
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| Shaun Peirce |
The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team went on a rampage to the tune of an 11-1 run over a span of 21:43, which enabled the Fighting Scots to run away from Wabash College during a 15-5 win on Saturday afternoon in the Black and Gold's North Coast Athletic Conference opener at Crawfordsville, Ind.
Tied 2-2, sophomore Cullen Kuhn scored the go-ahead tally with 13:19 to go before halftime, and Wooster's (5-2, 1-0 NCAC) quick-minded attack shifted the complexion of the game from there. First, senior Ian Brim bumped the lead out to two goals less than a minute later. Then, the Scots ramped up the intensity on both ends of the field with a pair of Wabash (1-5, 0-2 NCAC) turnovers being tacked onto the stat sheet before sophomore Luke Liljenstolpe extended the lead to 5-2 at the 10:26 mark.
After a Wabash goal by Austin Crosley trimmed Wooster's lead to two, seniors Alexander Bloom and Desmond Hughes stepped up on the offensive end with two goas each, with Hughes' second tally coming on the other end of the halftime break.
Hughes' second goal was setup by a nifty transition opportunity by the Scots. Sophomore Caelan Doherty caused a turnover in Wooster's defensive end and scooped up the ensuing groundball. Less than 15 ticks later, Hughes' goal was already tacked on.
From there, Wooster's goals kept coming as the Scots "sent in the hats" for Bloom at the 9:59 mark of the third period, and the Kuhn brothers were in sync just over 30 ticks later with sophomore Cullen Kuhn working a pass to senior Sam Kuhn, for the elder brother's team-leading 21st goal of the year. First-year Shaun Peirce etched his name into the scoring column twice to cap the run.
Peirce capped the Scots' assault on the cage with two more goals by game's end, and on the afternoon, Peirce and his Scot teammates peppered the Little Giants with 60 shots. Wooster had at least 10 shot attempts in each period, including a game-high 20 in the third frame. In fact, the Scots had as many shots in the third period as the Little Giants logged all game.
Peirce's four goals led the way for Wooster, while Bloom and Cullen Kuhn shared the team-high in points (4) with the Scots' rookie.
Wooster scooped up 54 groundballs in the game with 23 student-athletes recording at least one. Among those with groundballs, first-year Connor Mangan led the way with eight, while senior Jack Gilio scooped up seven.
Max Atkins logged 17 saves for Wabash.
Notable, Wooster's now won its league opener in each of the last four seasons.
Wooster, in the midst of a five-game road swing, now heads east to take on Saint John Fisher College (4-2) at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.