Strong defensive effort leads Men's Lacrosse to 14-7 win over Aurora (Ill.) in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championship

Aurora (Ill.)

14-6

Ohio Northern

16-4

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Aurora (Ill.) (14-6)	1	0	3	3	7
Ohio Northern (16-4)	3	6	1	4	14

Game Leaders

Aurora (Ill.)

G: Griffin Joas - 4

A: 4 Players (#4, #6, #43, #45) - 1

Sv: Asher Deputy - 15

GB: Griffin Joas - 5

Ohio Northern

G: Colin Willits - 4

A: 6 Players (#9, #19, #25, #29, #44, #57) - 1

Sv: Peyton Lich - 14

GB: 2 Players (#30, #57) - 4

Team Stats

Game Statistics	Aurora (Ill.)	Ohio Northern
Shots	31	44
Ground Balls	28	37
Saves	15	15
Clears	15-25	14-25
Turnovers	20	18
Face Offs Won	12	12
Man Up	0-0	2-4

Full stats

May 7, 2025

ADA — Freshman Peyton Lich (Palmyra, N.Y./Macedon) led the defense with 14 saves in goal as the Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team posted a 14-7 first-round victory in the NCAA Division III Championship over Aurora (Ill.) on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.

The Basics

Records: Ohio Northern (16-4 Overall), Aurora (Ill.) (14-6 Overall).
Venue: Dial-Roberson Stadium - Ada, Ohio.

The Game

Lich saved 11 of the first 12 shots that he faced on goal as the Polar Bears built a 10-1 lead 2:08 into the second half.
Junior Colin Willits (West Chester/Lakota West) had a four-goal hat trick and one assist to lead the Polar Bear offense.
Senior Ian Roy (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Northern) finished the game with two goals and one assist.
Four different Polar Bears had one goal and one assist in the contest.
Willits found the net to open the game at 10:04 to make it 1-0 in ONU's favor.
After a Spartan goal, freshman Cooper Mulligan (Middletown/Bishop Fenwick) and Roy each scored to take the lead 3-1 at the end of the first period.
The Orange and Black went on a 6-0 run in the second period to extend the lead to 9-1 going into halftime.
Northern extended the lead to 10-1 at 12:52 in the third period from the stick of Willits.
Aurora scored three unanswered goals, making it 10-4 going into the fourth period.
Willits and Roy each found the net again to begin the fourth period, which extended the lead to 12-4 and stopped the Spartan momentum.
Aurora was led by Griffin Joas with four goals in the game.
Sophomore Ryan Frech (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) had a team-high two caused turnovers to help the defense.
ONU out-shot AU 44-31 and had the ground ball advantage 37-28.

Notables

The Polar Bears advance to the second round of the NCAA Division III Championships.
This is ONU's first time in the NCAA Division III Championships in program history.
Willits holds the single-season record for goals in a season with 54 and leads the team in points with 67.
Senior Caleb Bennett (Stokesdale, N.C./Linganore) leads the team in assists this season with 31.
Frech leads the team in caused turnovers this season with 31.
Senior Chad Calderwood (Portland, Ore./Episcopal) won 11 of 21 in faceoffs on the day, extending his school record to 589 for his career.
He also has the career ground balls record with 273.
Willits is fourth all-time in ONU history with 96 career goals.
Lich has the freshman single-season record in saves with 143.
This was the first match-up between these two schools.
Bennett ranks fourth all-time in ONU history with 53 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 108-52 record, a winning percentage of .675.

Up Next

The Polar Bears will play in the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship on Saturday at No. 3-ranked Rochester Institute of Technology at 12 pm.