Gawronski and Reimer score twice each as Men's Lacrosse falls 9-6 at Baldwin Wallace in battle for OAC Regular Season crown

By Andrew Loewe

BEREA — Senior Ben Gawronski (Dublin/Scioto) and junior Alex Reimer (Lancaster, N.Y.) each netted two goals as the Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team fell 9-6 Wednesday night in a battle for the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title at Baldwin Wallace in Finnie Stadium.

With the loss, the Polar Bears finish the regular season 11-4 overall and 7-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Yellow Jackets (13-3 overall) win the regular season title outright with a 9-0 record.

Ohio Northern will be the No. 3 seed in the OAC Tournament and will host Mount Union in a quarterfinal game on Saturday at 1 pm at Dial-Roberson Stadium.

BW will be the No. 1 seed and receive a bye into next Wednesday's semifinals.

Junior Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) (11-4) registered six saves on 15 shots.

ONU jumped off to a 2-0 lead on back-to-back goals by Reimer, taking the lead to the end of the first quarter.

The Polar Bears held a 4-1 lead late in the half, before BW goals at 3:10 and with four seconds remaining in the first half cut the lead to 4-3 at halftime.

The Yellow Jackets then scored he first three goals of the third quarter to complete a 5-0 run and take the lead 6-4 with 6:19 remaining in the period. 

A goal by Gawronski with 3:47 left in the third cut the deficit to 6-5 and a goal by sophomore Aidan Dempsey (Silver Spring, Md./St. John's College) cut the BW lead to 7-6 with 5:06 remaining in the game.

But the hosts added two more goals in the final 3:34 to close out the victory.

ONU won the ground ball battle 31-21 and out-shot BW 35-27.