Scots Lead OWU Early Before Falling, 14-4

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team stunned Ohio Wesleyan University with a lightning-quick goal and led after a period of play, but the Battling Bishops recovered and went on to top the Fighting Scots 14-4 on Tuesday evening at John P. Papp Stadium.

Wooster (4-7, 2-2 North Coast Athletic Conference) won the opening faceoff, as first-year Bill Holtzer outhustled NCAC power Ohio Wesleyan' (7-3, 4-0 NCAC) faceoff unit. After advancing the ball into the attacking end, sophomore Vinny DiLeo swung a quick pass to classmate Charlie Ballou, who overmatched Ohio Wesleyan's 'keeper and shocked the Battling Bishops with a goal just :27 into the contest.

Sophomore Jimmy Fisher did not lose a faceoff in the first period, and sophomore Paul Chandler was more than up to the test with nine saves in the opening stanza alone. Sophomore Ben Byars scored with just north of a minute to go, giving Wooster a 2-0 lead, but Will Anton cut that to 2-1 in the closing seconds of the stanza.

The key momentum-changer came with about 14:40 left in the second period. Ohio Wesleyan's Luke Swaddling caused a turnover deep in Wooster's end and beat Chandler to the groundball, which led to an empty-net goal. Swaddling's goal was the game-tying tally, and the second of the Bishops' 9-0 run. The DiLeo-to-Byars connection struck again, finally getting Wooster another score at the 12:02 mark of the third. Prior to that, Chandler logged his 23rd save of the night, launched a pass out to near midfield that was tracked down by sophomore Rowan Keesser, then the short-stick middie led the runout for a quick transition score.

Chandler was phenomenal in goal again, and he was under near-constant bombardment from Ohio Wesleyan, which fired off 73 shots on the night. Forty of those were on target, resulting in 26 saves for Chandler. That marked a new career-high, the sophomore's third straight 20-save game, and his total ranks within the top-20 for a NCAA Div. III game this spring.

Byars added a co-team-high four groundballs to his two goals, while sophomore Seth Owens had two of the Scots' five caused turnovers.

MacGuire Scholl logged 12 saves, Swaddling finished with three goals and three assists, and Evan Rose went 14-of-20 on faceoffs and had a tri-team-leading five groundballs.

Wooster finished with 26 shots. Ohio Wesleyan held a 43-22 lead in groundballs and was 20-of-21 on clears to Wooster's 18-of-29

Next, Wooster heads to Wabash College (3-8, 0-4 NCAC) for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, April 16.