Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's lacrosse team hung tough with the No. 8-nationally ranked Denison University Big Red, but fell 14-6 on Bailey Field Saturday afternoon.
The Big Red led 3-0 after one quarter of play, but the Yeomen offense came alive in the second quarter. Oberlin scored four goals in less than five and a half minutes span to take its first led of the game.
Thomas Berle Carman got Oberlin on the board at the 13:18 mark of the second quarter, off a feed from
Tom Decker, which was followed by a goal off the stick of
Steve Kelleher who beat the Denison goalkeeper as he fell to the turf less than two minutes later.
On the power play off the flag from the Kelleher goal, Berle Carmon found Decker who tied the game at three a piece. Then Decker proceeded to give Oberlin the lead as stung the top-right corner of the net off a pass from Ellie Small with 7:51 on the clock.
The Big Red regained the lead before the intermission and would extended it to 7-4, when Brook Davy scored an unassisted goal with 8:13 left in the third. Long-stick midfielder
David Martin kept Oberlin's hope of an upset alive as he registered his second goal of the season with 21 ticks left in the third, but Denison would score off the face-off to make it 8-5 heading into the fourth.
The Big Red controlled the game for most of the fourth quarter as they dominated at the face-off, as All-American Henry DeCamp was 5-of-8 in the final 15 minutes. The face-off specialists performance allowed the Big Red to wear down the Oberlin defense and outscored the Yeomen 6-1 in the fourth. Martin scored the lone Oberlin goal as he beat the Denison goalie from just inside the box with 11:19 left on the clock.
Sophomore goalie
Calvin Filson was a big part of the teams strong showing against the Big Red. The Williamstown, Massachusetts native faced a season-high 50 shots and made a career-high 17 saves, with nine of the saves coming in the first half.
Along side Filson on the defensive end,
Sean Somerville caused a pair of turnovers and picked up three ground balls.
Offensively, Decker led the way with three points as he scored the two goals and added an assist.
On the stat sheet, the Yeomen had a strong day on the clear overall as they finish 14-of-19 and shot very efficiently as they put 10 of their 16 shots on net. Oberlin struggled at the face-off as they won just 7-of-23, due to the strong play of Denison's DeCamp, and were outshot 50-16 on the day.
The Yeomen fall to 0-4 in conference play and are no 5-6 on the year. The nationally-ranked Big Red move to 10-2 on the year and are a perfect 4-0 against NCAC opponents.
Oberlin is back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Gambier to face the Kenyon College Lords with the opening face-off scheduled for 4 p.m.
