Men’s Lacrosse wraps up regular season with 13-9 victory over Otterbein

By Tim Glon

ADA — Junior John Lynn (Cincinnati/Sycamore) scored a career-high four goals to help the Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team wrap up its regular season with a 13-9 victory over Otterbein on Wednesday night at Dial-Roberson Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 11-5 overall and finish fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 6-3 record, while the Cardinals fall to 6-10, 5-4 and will finish fifth in the league standings.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 1 pm in the quarterfinals of the OAC Tournament as No. 4 seed ONU will host the No. 5 seed at Dial-Roberson Stadium.

Junior Aidan Dempsey (Silver Spring, Md./St. John's College) also had a hat trick with three goals for ONU.

Aidan Moore and Carson Rainone each scored three goals for Otterbein.

Northern jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead just 5:26 into the contest, capped by back-to-back goals by seniors Andrew Reimer (Lancaster, N.Y.) and Ethan Hojnacki (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) just 14 seconds apart.

After OU pulled within 4-2, Lynn would score three consecutive goals for ONU in a 3-1 run to push the lead to 7-3 with 9:54 left in the half.

Otterbein goals by Moore and Rainone cut the lead to 7-5, but senior Riley O'Neal (Dumfries, Va./Forest Park) would score just before the half and ONU led 8-5 at intermission.

The Polar Bears would keep the Cardinals at bay the rest of the way as the lead would bounce within three and five goals the rest of the night.

ONU senior goalkeeper Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) recorded six saves in the game and is now 11-5 on the season.

Ohio Northern out-shot Otterbein 30-28 and had a 35-30 advantage in ground balls.

Saturday's home OAC Tournament game marks the third consecutive season and the fourth time in the last five seasons that ONU has hosted a tournament contest.