By Wes Mayberry

BRIDGEWATER, Va. — The Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team extended its best start in program history Sunday, opening its Spring Break trip with a 9-5 victory over Bridgewater (Va.) at Jopson Athletic Complex.

The Polar Bears improve to 5-0 overall while dropping the Eagles to 3-1.

Junior Aidan Dempsey (Silver Spring, Md./St. John's College) led ONU with four goals to go with two from senior Tyler Ferguson (Springboro).

Senior Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) improved to 5-0 in goal, recording 11 saves on 16 shots.

Seniors Andrew Reimer (Lancaster, N.Y.) and Nate Mitchell (Worthington/Kilbourne) and junior Sebastian Michaud (Springboro) recorded a team-best four ground balls for Northern.

Chris Martel scored a team-high two goals for the Eagles.

Ferguson and Dempsey scored one goal each in the first quarter, and the teams entered the second period tied at 2-2.

Northern opened the second quarter with goals from Dempsey and freshman Colin Willits (West Chester/Lakota West) for a 4-2 edge before Bridgewater answered with a goal from Connor McLean with 3:01 left in the half.

ONU entered halftime leading 4-3 and made it a two-goal edge courtesy of Dempsey with 8:31 left in the third quarter.

Freshman Nathan Flynn (Springboro) and senior Alex Reimer (Lancaster, N.Y.) followed with goals of their own to put the Polar Bears up 7-3.

The Eagles cut the deficit to three with 3:55 left in the third, but Ferguson opened the scoring in the fourth to restore ONU's four-goal edge.

Bridgewater got back within three on a man-up goal from Drew Huber with 2:49 remaining, and Dempsey capped the scoring with his fourth goal of the game with 1:42 left.

ONU out-shot Bridgewater 42-30, while the Eagles were 10-of-17 on faceoffs. Both teams had 34 ground balls.

The Polar Bears return to action on Wednesday at Hampden-Sydney (Va.) at 5 p.m.