Sam Kuhn

CJ Polak

The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team ramped up its defensive intensity, and added some timely goals at the offensive end, both of which led to a 9-5 win over Goucher College on Monday afternoon at Towson, Md.

Wooster's (2-3) five goals allowed matched the fewest yielded by the Fighting Scots since a 21-5 win over Wabash College on March 19, 2016, while the Black & Gold's 15 caused turnovers on the afternoon matched the team's season-high. In fact, Wooster's relentless defense book-ended the afternoon with scoreless frames in the first and fourth periods.

Offensively, Towson native Sam Kuhn provided a key insurance goal with 7:48 remaining that put Wooster up 7-5, and led to a game-closing 3-0 run with tallies in the scoring column from seniors CJ Polak and Josh Herold helping to put the game out of reach.

Wooster broke through first at the 5:46 mark of the opening period as Polak found the back of the net for the first of a game-high four times on the afternoon. In fact, that goal marked the lone tally in the first period, but Wooster opened up a 3-0 advantage before Andrew Sade put Goucher (2-4) on the board with 12:33 to go in the opening half.

Wooster's defensive pressure, speed in transition, and success in the face-off-x proved valuable in the game as 16 of the 20 student-athletes who played were credited with a groundball, nine of them caused a turnover, and Wooster won 11-of-17 face-offs, including all five contested in the opening and closing periods.

Junior Jack Gilio led the charge defensively with four caused turnovers and three ground balls while classmate Erik Barroso, sophomore Ethan Scully, and first-year Noah Plotkin each filled the stat sheet with a pair of caused turnovers. First-year Cullen Kuhn, also a Towson native, finished with a co-game-high five groundballs, as did first-year Wesley Wagner, who paired that with four saves.

Offensively, senior Matt Parmelee joined Herold and Polak with multiple goals.

Goucher's Matt Messerle tallied 15 saves in the contest.

Wooster closes out its three-game Maryland trip with a 1 p.m. game at McDaniel College (4-2) on Wednesday.