Men's Lacrosse falls 8-6 to Capital in defensive battle

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team dropped a tight 8-6 decision in a defensive battle with Ohio Athletic Conference foe Capital on Friday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (6-4 overall, 1-1 OAC), Capital (3-6 overall, 2-0 OAC)
• Venue: Dial-Roberson Stadium - Ada, Ohio.

The Game

• Freshman Mitchel Luck (Linden, Mich.) had two goals and fifth-year senior Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) had 12 saves in goal to lead the Polar Bears.
• Northern got two goals from Luck sandwiched around a goal from freshman Hudson Welsh (Fallston, Md./Wright) all while holding the Comets scoreless for the final 23:29 of the half to lead 3-1 at intermission.
• Senior Aidan Dempsey (Silver Spring, Md./St. John's College) scored with 11:21 left in the third quarter to put ONU up 4-3.
• The CU defense would then stiffen, holding the Polar Bears scoreless for the next 23:27, as the visitors would score the game's next five goals to lead 8-4 with 5:15 left in the game.
• Sophomore Mark Mintzlaff (St. Louis, Mo./Country Day) would break the drought with a goal at the 2;54 mark of the fourth quarter to make it 8-5.
• Sophomore Colin Willits (West Chester/Lakota West) would score with 1:05 remaining to close the gap to 8-6.
• But Capital would win the ensuing faceoff and run out the clock to hang on for the victory.
• Zaferakis had his 12 saves on 20 shots on goal for Ohio Northern, a save percentage of .600.
• ONU out-shot CU 43-28

Notables

• Dempsey now ranks fifth all-time in ONU history with 113 points in his career. He ranks fourth with 80 career goals and is sixth with 34 assists.
• He also leads the team in scoring this season with 23 goals and 29 points.
• In all, 21 different Polar Bears have scored goals this season with six more adding at least one assist.
• Senior Chad Calderwood (Portland, Ore./Episcopal) won 7-of-13 faceoffs on the day, extending his school record to 362 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 (541), wins (41) and goalie minutes played (3,349).
• CU now leads the all-time series with ONU by a 6-4 margin.
• Head coach Nat St.Laurent is in his ninth season at Ohio Northern with an 85-46 record and has a winning percentage of .649.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday at 7 pm at Otterbein.