Oberlin, Ohio – Senior Ian McCague scored with 1:40 left to play to lift the Oberlin College men's lacrosse team to a thrilling 8-7 win over the visiting Thiel College Tomcats on a wintry Wednesday night at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex.
 
The Yeomen trailed 7-4 with 25 minutes left in the game but went on to post the final four tallies of the contest en route to improving to 3-0 on the young season. Sophomore goalie Calvin Filson played a large role in the comeback efforts as he tied a career-high with 15 saves with seven coming in the second half.
 
Reese Koburov led the Yeomen attack with three goals, while senior Steve Kelleher netted two scores in the triumph.
 
Oberlin controlled the run of play throughout the evening, evident by a 49-29 advantage in shots and a 37-21 margin in ground balls. The Yeomen were also an efficient 18-of-20 on clear attempts.
 
The Yeomen struck first, netting the game's first two goals as Kelleher opened the scoring with the help of a John Sutherland feed at the 9:05 mark. Just over a minute later, Oberlin recorded its first man-up goal of the season as Koburov finished off another helper from Sutherland.
 
Unfortunately, the Tomcats came storming back with four unanswered goals as they carried a 4-2 lead into the second quarter.
 
Jay Messina would setup the first two Yeomen scores of the second quarter as he found Tom Decker and Koburov within the first three minutes of the period to tie the game at 4-4, but Thiel would answer back with a pair of scores to take a 6-4 cushion into the intermission.
 
The Tomcats would grab a three-goal lead early in the third quarter as John Smiley finished off a pass from Brennan O'Shea, but Messina would later answer with his first score of the game at the 6:32 mark. After many promising scoring opportunities that went for naught, Oberlin would break through in the closing seconds of the period as Kelleher deposited his second score of the game to cut the Tomcats' lead down to 7-6 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
After getting the ball at the top of the arc, Koburov would dodge his way through the Tomcats' defense and go low on goalie Cole O'Connor for the fourth-quarter equalizer with 7:38 left to play. With the way the Yeomen defense was playing in the second half, Oberlin faithful had to be confident that all it would take would be one more score to secure the win and their wishes were granted with McCague's third goal of the season.

Jonah Danziger led the Yeomen with six ground balls while David Martin added four. Max McAllister went 9-of-17 on face-offs, while Brendan Sheehan added two more wins as Oberlin went 11-of-19 on the night.
 
The Yeomen are back in action on Saturday afternoon as they travel to the University Mount Union for a 1 p.m. battle.