Men's Lacrosse wins its first OAC Tournament championship in program history with thrilling 10-9 victory at Baldwin Wallace

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.