Men's Lacrosse opens OAC slate with impressive 8-5 victory at John Carroll

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — The Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team opened the Ohio Athletic Conference portion of its schedule with an impressive 8-5 victory at seven-time defending league champion John Carroll on Saturday night.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (6-3 overall, 1-0 OAC), John Carroll (1-4 overall, 0-1 OAC)
• Venue: Don Shula Stadium - University Heights, Ohio.

The Game

• Senior John Lynn (Cincinnati/Sycamore) and sophomore Colin Willits (West Chester/Lakota West) each had two goals for ONU.
• Willits' goals were of the spectacular variety and came in crucial moments in the second half with ONU holding a slim lead.
• His first was a behind-the-back shot with 8:39 left in the third quarter to give ONU a 6-3 advantage.
• After JCU pulled within 6-4, Willits intercepted a clearing pass from the goalie and blasted a shot from 30 yards out to increase the lead to 7-4.
• Freshman Mitchel Luck (Linden, Mich.) scored off an assist from junior Caleb Bennett (New Market, Md./Linganore) with 7:33 left to play to make it 8-4 Polar Bears.
• The Blue Streaks get within 8-5 with a goal at the 4:45 mark.
• Northern was able to maintain possession of the ball for the majority of the final four minutes and were able to run out the clock and hang on for the victory.
• Ohio Northern outscored John Carroll 2-1 in each of the final three quarters to pull away from a 2-2 tie after 15 minutes and grab the win.
• Senior Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) had seven saves on 12 shots on goal for Ohio Northern, a save percentage of .583.
• ONU out-shot JCU 37-30.

Notables

• Senior Aidan Dempsey (Silver Spring, Md./St. John's College) now ranks fifth all-time in ONU history with 111 points in his career. He ranks fourth with 79 career goals and is sixth with 33 assists.
• Senior Chad Calderwood (Portland, Ore./Episcopal) won 9-of-13 faceoffs on the day, extending his school record to 355 for his career. 
• Senior Sebastian Michaud (Springboro) is sixth at ONU with 63 career goals, is seventh with 30 assists and is sixth with 93 points.
• Fifth-year senior Riley O'Neal (Dumfries, Va./Forest Park) is fifth with 37 career assists.
• Zafarakis holds the ONU career records for saves (525), wins (41) and goalie minutes played (3,319).
• The victory was the first in 10 tries for Ohio Northern over John Carroll, who has won the last seven OAC Tournament titles and had won 29 of its last 32 OAC regular season games.
• Head coach Nat St.Laurent is in his ninth season at Ohio Northern with an 85-45 record and has a winning percentage of .654.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Friday at 5 pm at home against Capital.