Dominant defensive effort leads Men's Lacrosse to 7-2 win against John Carroll in OAC Tournament semifinals

ADA— Ohio Northern turned in a dominating defensive performance to post a 7-2 victory over John Carroll in the semifinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Lacrosse Tournament on a beautiful Wednesday evening. 

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (14-4 Overall), John Carroll (9-8 Overall).
• Venue: Dial-Roberson Stadium - Ada, Ohio. 

The Game 

• Northern's defense held the Blue Streaks scoreless for 46:39 in the contest and forced the Blue Streaks into 24 turnovers.
• Sophomore Mitchel Luck (Linden, Mich.) had two goals and two assists to lead the Polar Bears. 
• Freshman Cooper Mulligan (Middletown/Bishop Fenwick) scored two goals in the contest.
• Junior Mark Mintzlaff (St. Louis, Mo./Country Day) had one goal and one assist for Northern.
• John Carroll scored the opening goal, but then Luck and Mulligan each scored to take a 2-1 lead. 
• ONU and JCU were tied 2-2 heading into the second period. 
• Neither team could find the net in the second, and it was tied 2-2 at halftime.
• Mulligan broke the tie with a goal at 4:32 in the third period.
• Mintzlaff followed it up with a goal 3:03 later, making it 4-2 going into the fourth period. 
• The Polar Bears added two more goals, extending the lead to 6-2.
• Junior Colin Willits (West Chester/Lakota West) and sophomore Ryan Frech (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) had three caused turnovers each to lead the defense. 
• Peyton Lich (Palmyra, N.Y./Macedon) had 6 saves to earn the win for the ONU. 
• ONU out-shot JCU 41-19 and had the ground ball advantage 27-22.

Notables

• The Polar Bear defense held JCU goalless after the 1:39 mark of the first period, leading to the Polar Bear victory. 
• ONU was the No. 2 seed in the OAC Tournament, and John Carroll was the No. 3 seed. 
• Willits holds the single-season record for goals in a season with 47 and leads the team in points with 59. 
• Bennett leads the team in assists this season with 26 and is third in the OAC.
• Sophomore Ryan Frech (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) leads the team in caused turnovers this season with 29.
• Senior Chad Calderwood (Portland, Ore./Episcopal) won 7 of 9 in faceoffs on the day, extending his school record to 565 for his career.
• He also has the career ground balls record with 263.
• Willits is tied for fourth all-time in ONU history with 89 career goals.
• Lich has the freshman single-season record in saves with 117.
• John Carroll leads the all-time series with a 10-3 record.
• Bennett ranks fourth all-time in ONU history with 48 career assists.
• In all, 26 different Polar Bears have scored goals this season.
• Head coach Nat St.Laurent is in his tenth season at Ohio Northern with a 106-52 record, a winning percentage of .670.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on the road for the OAC Tournament finals at top-seeded Baldwin Wallace on Saturday at 1 pm.