Sophomore Cameron Marous scores in overtime to lift Men's Lacrosse past Kenyon 10-9

By Tim Glon

ADA — Sophomore Cameron Marous (Brecksville) scored with 44 seconds left in overtime to lift the Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team to a 10-9 victory over Kenyon on Tuesday at Dial-Roberson Stadium.

The Polar Bears (2-0 overall) rallied from a 5-2 third period deficit to get past the Lords (1-1).

Sophomore Kevin Giles (Williamsburg, Va./Warhill) scored off an assist from Marous with 4:32 left in the game to give the Polar Bears a 9-8 lead.

But Joe Woody scored for KC with 1:37 left to tie the game at 9-all.

Northern won the ensuing faceoff, and a shot by junior Mitch Groves (Fishers, Ind./Chatard) hit the post with 1:13 left, but the Kenyon defense held ONU without a shot the rest of the period.

In overtime, ONU freshman Preston Victory (Brentwood, Tenn.) won the faceoff and took a shot just 13 seconds into the period, but was stopped by KC goalie Reed Levesque.

The Lords then had their first chance to win the game, but ONU junior Alex Pizarro (Boonsboro, Md.) stopped Chris Ferraro with 2:52 to play in overtime.

Two more KC shots were wide, Northern had a successful clear and called timeout with 1:06 left in the overtime period.

After the first ONU play was thwarted, the Polar Bears reset the offense and Marous took a pass from junior Noah St. Croix (Rochester, N.Y./Irondequoit) and scored from 10 yards out for the game-winner.

"We grew up as a team today," ONU head coach Nat St. Laurent said. "This was a great team win for our program. Our bench was great. Preston, Victory, our freshman face off guy, was terrific. I thought we did a great job of maintaining our composure when our first two chances to score and win the game didn't work. Kenyon is perennially one of the elite programs in the country, so this was a very big win for us."

Marous had his second consecutive hat trick and ended the game with four points on three goals and an assist.

Giles also had a hat trick with three goals, junior Anthony Pavone (Chagrin Falls/Kenston) added a goal and two assists and sophomore Shane Olsen (White Bear Lake, Minn.) had a pair of goals for ONU.

Kenyon got two goals apeice from Pierce Kraft, Emilio Sosa and Joe Bolea.

Pizarro (2-0) picked up the with with 10 saves in goal.

Victory was impressive in the faceoff circle, winning 14-of-19 faceoffs, as the Polar Bears finished the day 15-of-22.

KC out-shot ONU 40-37, but Northern won the ground ball battle by a 37-23 margin.

The Polar Bears will wrap up their three-game home stand on Saturday with a 1 pm contest against Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) at the ONU Sports Center.