Fourth Quarter Comeback Not Enough in OT Loss to John Carroll 

WOOSTER - The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team mounted a furious fourth quarter comeback to force overtime on Saturday but ultimately fell to future North Coast Athletic Conference foe member John Carroll University, 10-9, score inside John P. Papp Stadium. 

While the first half was a back-and-forth affair, a 4-0 John Carroll run that spanned the entire third quarter helped set the scene for an epic finale. Junior Austin Jourde netted his first goal of the afternoon to open the final frame and pulled Wooster (1-1) within two goals, 7-5, with 10:43 remaining.

The Blue Streaks (2-1) scored twice more to open the lead back up to four goals. However, Jourde then completed a hat trick with back-to-back goals as the Scots clawed their way back into the game. 

Junior Luke Budd brought Wooster to within one goal with just over a minute remaining. Senior Rory Zahren won the ensuing faceoff but Wooster failed to clear the ball into the offensive field, resulting in a turnover.

Fortunately, John Carroll had a turnover of its own which allowed senior Will Fink to score the game-tying goal with only 22 seconds remaining on the clock. Zahren won the faceoff again and got the ball over to Jourde who had a good look as the clock expired, but it hit the post as the game went into overtime. 

John Carroll won the first and only faceoff of extra time, called timeout to set a play and held on to the ball en route to scoring the game-winning goal. 

Jourde had a season-high of four points off three goals and one assist. Fink, Ludd and senior Riley Schulze each netted a pair of goals. Defensively, Zahren snagged a team-best five ground balls and senior Bill Holtzer had three ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.

Junior Sean Keane and sophomore Frank Laforce accounted for most of the Blue Streaks offense with four goals apiece. John Carroll also had a swarming defense as nine different Blue Streaks recorded more than one ground ball while two of those same players - senior Hayden Mumbach and junior Camden Uchic - also had multiple caused turnovers.

First-year Case Lowery suffered his first loss in the cage but recorded seven saves. First-year Devin Holder won the battle of first-years, making eight stops. 

John Carroll and Wooster were very evenly matched statistics wise, including shots (37-36 John Carroll) and faceoffs (13-of-23 versus 10-of-23 in favor of the Blue Streaks) while turnovers were even at 25 apiece. The only category where John Carroll held a distinct advantage was in ground balls, 40-31. 

Wooster's next outing will be the resumption of its postponed game at Otterbein University on March 4 inside Memorial Stadium. The game was originally suspended in the first quarter due to weather on Wednesday evening.