MEADVILLE, Pennsylvania – Postseason aspirations are still alive for The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team, which rode an eight-goal first half to an 11-5 win at Allegheny College on Tuesday evening at the Robertson Athletic Complex.
With four North Coast Athletic Conference teams already having at least five wins, Wooster (6-9, 4-4 NCAC) was faced with a must-win situation to stay in the hunt for the fourth seed for next week's four-team NCAC Tournament. Sophomore Ben Byars set the tone offensively in making sure Wooster lived to fight on. The attacker scored 2:15 into the contest, then assisted on first-year Will Fink's goal less than a minute later. Wooster's faceoff crew, spearheaded by sophomore Jimmy Fisher and senior Tyler Schroeder, gave the Fighting Scots immediate possession on both early faceoffs, and defensively, sophomore Paul Chandler denied Allegheny's (4-12, 2-6 NCAC) Logan Sharp at the 13:02 mark of the first.
Caused turnovers by sophomore Seth Owens and first-year Bill Holtzer helped blank Allegheny on the scoreboard in the first. In fact, Owens had two caused turnovers in the opening stanza, with the second coming before sophomore Charlie Ballou etched his name in the scoring column for the first time on the night. Causing havoc continued on the defensive end later in the first when sophomores Casey Steffen and Mason Poisson forced Allegheny turnovers, and DiLeo made the Gators pay at the other end by finding senior Ben Kennedy, who made it 4-0 at the 1:39 mark.
Wooster answered Allegheny's opening goal with a 4-1 run in the second, and that enabled the Scots to take a commanding 8-2 lead into halftime. Fisher won a faceoff at the 2:47 mark, scooped up the groundball, then scored his first goal of the season seconds later.
Byars struck early in the third, upping the Scots' lead to seven, and sophomore Jimmy Paranzino was also involved on the scoring side of things. DiLeo's fourth-period score bumped Wooster's lead back out to eight.
Ballou's three goals led Wooster, while DiLeo had a four-point night on the strength of two goals and two assists. Fisher, fueled by a 9-for-12 showing on faceoffs, scooped up eight groundballs, a total that was matched by Steffen, the Scots' leading long pole. Owens and Steffen combined to log six of Wooster's 11 caused turnovers, and Chandler finished with seven saves.
Nicholas Cimillo scored three times to lead Allegheny. Cassady Bouthet had five groundballs and five caused turnovers on his line.
Wooster outshot Allegheny 47-32 and finished with a 40-27 edge in groundballs.
Next, Wooster has another must-win situation on its hands, with Oberlin College (11-3, 5-2 NCAC) in town for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, April 30 at John P. Papp Stadium. Wooster needs a win, plus a Denison University (12-4, 8-0 NCAC) win over Wittenberg University (5-9, 5-3 NCAC) to stay alive in the playoff race. If both of those outcomes happen, the three-way tie for the fourth seed will be broken by the NCAC office via already-established tiebreaking procedures.