WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team's defense overwhelmed visiting Kenyon College at times, but the Owls' second-half scoring uptick enabled the guests to take a 15-10 win over the Fighting Scots on Tuesday evening at John P. Papp Stadium.
Wooster (10-6, 4-3 North Coast Athletic Conference) held Kenyon (11-5, 5-2 NCAC) to 12-of-23 on clear attempts, and that included a bumpy 1-of-5 start for the Owls in the first quarter and a 6-of-12 ledger after halftime. Turnovers were 27-16 in Wooster's favor, and the Owls coughed the ball up 11 times in the opening quarter. Those two stats led to 16 Wooster caused turnovers, including four from junior Bill Holtzer and three from senior Casey Steffen.
Steffen surpassed 200 career groundballs on Tuesday night with six and the senior is within 10 caused turnovers in his bid to become just the fourth player in NCAA Div. III history to reach 200 caused turnovers. Steffen's first caused turnover of the night came just 42 seconds into the contest, yet it was not the first one caused by the Scots. That went to sophomore Lane Kellogg right after the opening faceoff, and he found senior Ben Byars open for a score just 12 seconds into the game.
Wooster's lead was 4-0 after junior Riley Schulze, Kellogg, and junior Aidan Hyatt all scored in the opening 7:29. Wooster maintained a lead until Kenyon's Mike Kapral tied the game at six with 5:41 to go before halftime. Scots' senior Vinny DiLeo gave Wooster the 7-6 lead at halftime, but David Chintala scored for the 48th time on the season to give the Owls the lead for good with 9:48 to go in the third quarter.
Sophomore Austin Jourde's three goals led Wooster. Senior Jimmy Fisher won 11 faceoffs and added 11 groundballs to his single-season and career program record totals. Senior Paul Chandler turned aside 11 Kenyon shots.
Adam Hall was a big difference maker in the outcoming with 20 saves, including several highlight-reel ones. Rollins Heath's four goals led all players. The Owls' also had a five-point contribution from Kapral, who finished with three goals and two assists. Thomas Nelson won 18-of-27 faceoffs and scooped up the groundball on the majority of his wins with 13 on the night. Henry Moderelli's three groundballs and three caused turnovers led the Owls' defense.
Wooster outshot Kenyon 49-40 and had 37 groundballs to the Owls' 36. Wooster was successful on 14-of-17 clear attempts.
Next, Wooster concludes the regular season at Wabash College (8-7, 1-6 NCAC). Game time on Saturday, April 27 is set for 12 p.m.