Scots Remain Perfect Opening NCAC Play

OBERLIN -- The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team continued its hot start to the season into its first North Coast Athletic Conference game on Saturday by defeating Oberlin College 11-7.

Wooster expanded its program's longest winning streak and best start to the season at 10-0. They are the first team in Division III to reach the 10-win mark. Twelve teams entered Saturday with undefeated records, and at least two went down at the timing of this story.

Rory Zahren led the way for Wooster with four goals. Colton Beaudoin followed with three, and Vinny DiLeo added a pair.

After a 3-1 first quarter, Oberlin (4-4, 0-1 NCAC) tied it at 4 with 2:25 left in the first half. However, that put Wooster into another gear.

Twelve seconds later, DiLeo gave Wooster the lead right back, which started a 3-0 run to end the second quarter, and Wooster led 7-4 at halftime.

Oberlin scored the next two coming out of halftime before Beaudoin ended the quarter with another goal for Wooster to lead 8-6.

After the teams traded goals to begin the fourth, Wooster slowly started to pull away as Beaudoin scored with 8:20 to go and Zahren scored the final goal with 5:55 remaining. 

Lane Kellogg tallied three assists. Zahren and Henry McMahon shared the team lead with seven ground balls.

Wooster tallied 33 ground balls to Oberlin's 25. Wooster also was 20-of-24 in its clearing attempts, while holding Oberlin at 23-of-35.

Zahren won 11-of-12 faceoffs as the team went 18-of-22 for the game.

Paul Chandler collected the win in goal, making 10 saves. Casey Steffen broke the program's single-season record in caused turnovers and is up to 42.

This was the first NCAC contest for both teams. It is conference games the rest of the way for the Scots, who head to DePauw University on Saturday.