Men's Lacrosse wins its first OAC Tournament championship in program history with thrilling 10-9 victory at Baldwin Wallace
May 3, 2025
BEREA — The Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team won its first Ohio Athletic Conference Championship in program history with a thrilling 10-9 victory at Baldwin Wallace on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
The Basics
- Records: Ohio Northern (15-4 Overall), Baldwin Wallace (14-5 Overall).
- Venue: George Finnie Stadium - Berea, Ohio.
The Game
- Junior Colin Willits (West Chester/Lakota West) scored a three-goal hat trick to lead the Polar Bears.
- Senior Caleb Bennett (Stokesdale, N.C./Linganore) had one goal and four assists in the contest.
- Sophomore Jack Chaney (Westerville/South) finished the game with two goals and one assist.
- BW opened the game scoring two unanswered goals, then junior Nathan Flynn (Springboro) found the net, making it 2-1.
- After a Baldwin Wallace goal, junior J.D. Hale (West Chester/Lakota West) found the net at 3:59 left in the second period to cut the lead to 5-3 heading into halftime.
- Chaney scored his second goal of the game to start the third period, cutting the lead to 5-4.
- Willits found the net to tie it up 5-5 at 10:06 in the third period.
- The Polar Bears scored two unanswered goals to take the lead 7-5.
- ONU led BW 7-6 heading into the fourth period.
- The Yellow Jackets tied it up 7-7 early in the fourth.
- Freshman Cooper Mulligan (Middletown/Bishop Fenwick) broke the tie with a goal at 10:33 in the fourth period, making it 8-7.
- Willits scored back-to-back goals to extend the lead to 10-7.
- Freshman Brady Vette (Battle Creek, Mich./Harper Creek) had a team-high two caused turnovers to lead the defense.
- Peyton Lich (Palmyra, N.Y./Macedon) had 12 saves to earn the win for the ONU.
- Lich made two key saves in the last 1;35 of the game to keep the Polar Bear lead intact.
- BW out-shot ONU 40-34 and had the ground ball advantage 27-24.
Notables
- This is the first OAC Tournament championship in Ohio Northern program history.
- The Polar Bears now advance to the NCAA Division III Championships for the first time in program history.
- The 2025 NCAA Division III selection show will be on Sunday at 9 pm to find out Northern's seed for the tournament.
- Willits holds the single-season record for goals in a season with 50 and leads the team in points with 62.
- Bennett leads the team in assists this season with 30.
- Sophomore Ryan Frech (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) leads the team in caused turnovers this season with 29.
- Senior Chad Calderwood (Portland, Ore./Episcopal) won 13 of 20 in faceoffs on the day, extending his school record to 578 for his career.
- He also has the career ground balls record with 269.
- Willits is fourth all-time in ONU history with 92 career goals.
- Lich has the freshman single-season record in saves with 129.
- Baldwin Wallace leads the all-time series 12-2.
- Bennett ranks fourth all-time in ONU history with 52 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 107-52 record, a winning percentage of .672.
Up Next
- The Polar Bears will find their NCAA opponent and site on Sunday at 9 pm with the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse selection show on NCAA.com.
