Scots Get Close, But Can't Top Yeomen

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster pulled within two of Oberlin College four times in the second half, but the Fighting Scots were unable to send off their seniors with a win, as the Black and Gold fell 16-12 in the season finale on Saturday afternoon at John P. Papp Stadium.

Senior Tyler Schroeder scored his first goal of the year, and that made it a 10-8 game with 9:47 left in the third. Next, first-year Will Fink scored for the 15th time this spring, and that strike with 2:12 on the third-quarter clock had Wooster (6-10, 4-5 North Coast Athletic Conference) within 12-10. In the fourth period, an Oberlin (12-4, 6-3 NCAC) defender riding Riley Schulze had no luck slowing the rookie midfielder, as the Scots' first-year pumped in his fourth goal of the year that made it 13-11. Senior Ben Kennedy scored Wooster's final goal of the year with 7:14 to go, and that had the deficit back to two. Niko Maheras and Tom Decker scored for Oberlin down the stretch to put the game out of reach.

Sophomore Paul Chandler continued his terrific play in goal. The business economics major denied Oberlin 20 times on the day, and in doing so, ran his season save count to 219, the eighth-most in single-season program history. In fact, Chandler has the program's top save total in the last two decades, with John Park's 242 stops in 2001 ranking as the most stops in program history for a season prior to Chandler's 2022 number.

Sophomore Charlie Ballou opened the day's scoring at the 10:10 mark of the first period, and his team-leading 32nd goal of the year came with 7:05 to go in the first half. That marked Wooster's last lead of the day, with Oberlin's Ryan Blasberg scoring twice, and the Yeomen took a 4-2 lead with one second remaining in the first.

Five Scots scored two goals on the day, including sophomore Vinny DiLeo, who passed out three assists, giving him 26 on the year. Sophomore Jimmy Fisher won 10-of-16 faceoffs and scooped up the groundball on eight of them, with that marking the team-high. DiLeo's five groundballs were the top mark outside of the faceoff crew, and first-year Aidan Hyatt had two of the Scots' eight caused turnovers.

JT Starcke's talents on the faceoff wings and the defensive end were noticeable, evidenced by 11 groundballs and four caused turnovers. Decker powered the offense with four goals and two assists, while Eugene Kang tallied 13 saves.