Wooster Surges Past Allegheny, 17-9

It's no secret The College of Wooster's Shaun Peirce is one of the most prolific scorers in men's lacrosse history for the Fighting Scots, and on Tuesday evening, the senior's dominance, plus a strong supporting effort from the business economics major's teammates led to a 17-9 win over visiting Allegheny College at John P. Papp Stadium.

Peirce came two points and two goals shy of matching Wooster's (3-1, 3-0 North Coast Athletic Conference East Division) program records with 10 and seven on the evening, respectively, and it was the attacker's scoring prowess that stood out in this contest. With his seven goals, Peirce joined Wooster lacrosse legend Tom Bennett as the only players in program history with multiple games with at least seven goals. Bennett's nine scores versus Dickinson College in 1992 remains the program's single-game benchmark.

While Peirce was the high player on the night, the Scots' rookies got the scoring frenzy started in the first, as first-year Vinny DiLeo passed out his team-leading 13th assist on Ben Byars' evening-opening goal. By the end of the opening period, Wooster ran its string of clean sheets in the first stanza to three straight games.

In the second period, Allegheny's (0-1, 0-1 NCAC East Division) Nick Gralewski etched his name in Gators' history as the first player to score in a game in NCAC play, as the second-year program made its official debut in a conference contest on Tuesday evening. The Gators were within 8-2 with 6:06 left in the second stanza, before Wooster's senior leadership took over, with two Peirce goals and an unassisted tally by classmate Ted Wells opening up an 11-2 halftime lead.

With time running down in the third period, Peirce foiled Allegheny's clear attempt, first by causing a Cameron Lynch turnover. Then, Peirce scooped up the groundball, took aim at an empty cage with the Gators 'keeper upfield helping on the clear try, and fired a laser in from 30 yards out. Other stats of note from the third period included five big saves by Wooster sophomore Adam Meyer, who finished with a career-high nine stops.

Wells and Byars tacked on insurance goals for Wooster in the fourth period.

Senior Connor Mangan logged an all-around superstar performance with eight groundballs, four goals, an assist, and a caused turnover. He now has 148 career groundballs, the seventh-most in program history to pair with a single-season, personal-high 13 goals.

Peirce is now at 111 career goals, the most since Mark Weschler netted 122 from 2006-09.

First-year Jimmy Fisher had his way with Allegheny's Colin Deubell and Ryan Therkorn all night long, winning 20-of-29 faceoffs. He collected 15 groundballs on the night.

Patrick Hogan led Allegheny with three goals and an assist, while Cassady Bouthet's five groundballs led the way for the Gators. Eric Mirkovich turned aside eight shots while allowing six goals after entering the game to start the third stanza.

Wooster outshot Allegheny 47-27 and scooped up 45 groundballs to the Gators' 31. Wooster did its job when faced with player-down situations, as Allegheny converted on just 1-of-7 man-up opportunities.

The same two teams are set to meet again on Saturday in Meadville with opening faceoff at 1 p.m.