Whittier, CA – The Oberlin College men's lacrosse team closed out its California road trip by dropping a 20-15 affair at Whittier College on Thursday night.
 
The Yeomen used a diverse scoring attack as 10 different players found twine in the setback. Matthew Barry, Thomas Berle Carman, Michael Muldoon, Jay Messina, and Tom Decker led the charge with two goals apiece.
 
Berle Carman netted the game's first score just 95 seconds into the contest but the Poets would control most of the first quarter. A Devlin O'Keefe goal with 6:23 left in the frame cut the Whitter lead down to 3-2 but a string of four straight Poets' goals made it 7-2 before Griffin Cappelletti capped the 15-minute frame with his eighth tally of the year.
 
The following three quarters were essentially even as the Yeomen scored 12 times while the Poets netted 13 goals over the final 45 minutes of action but the early shortcoming was too much to overcome for the Yeomen.
 
The Poets scored three out of the first four goals of the second quarter to balloon their lead out to 10-4. The early Oberlin point came courtesy of Jack Stevens. However, the Yeomen would battle back to shirk the halftime deficit down to 11-7. Alex Dovichi, Regan Chasney, and Messina would each deposit a goal prior to the intermission.
 
Oberlin really put the pressure on the Poets to start the third quarter, posting the first three scores of the stanza to make it just a one-goal game at 11-10 midway through the session. Muldoon, Barry and Berle Carman would all score during the spurt.
 
Unfortunately, the Poets answered back with a 5-0 burst, which was capped by a man-up goal from Ronan Dooney that made it 16-10 going into the fourth.
 
The Yeomen tried to generate a comeback in the final frame, netting the first three scores of the period, which included a man-up finish from Barry. He was setup off a feed from Decker, who posted the prior two tallies of the period.
 
The Poets and Yeomen went on to trade a pair of back-to-back goals by each side with Muldoon scoring first before Messina added a man-up finish that had the Yeomen within three at 18-15. Unfortunately, the comeback bid was halted there as the Poets ended the game by posting two more tallies on the scoreboard.
 
Rookie Will Baker earned his first-career start between the pipes and made 13 saves for the Yeomen. Oberlin's man-down defense was impressive as they held the Poets to just two man-up goals on nine chances.
 
Oberlin finished with a 49-43 margin in shots, but the Poets had a slight 32-31 edge in shots on goal while also ending with a 30-28 advantage in ground balls.
 
Oberlin, which has dropped three games in a row to fall to 3-5, returns to Ohio to take on nationally ranked Denison on Wednesday, April 3 in Granville, Ohio. The opening face-off is set for 7 p.m.