Pittsburgh, PA- The Oberlin men's lacrosse team kicked off their season in a road match against the Chatham Cougars on Saturday afternoon. Taking an early lead, the Yeomen held it the entirety of the game finishing 10-7 over the Cougars. The opening game puts Oberlin at 1-0 on the season.
 
Kiernan Stone got the season started with fire, causing a turnover right off the opening faceoff and running downfield for the goal. Up 1-0 just :19 into the game, Chatham looked to respond to the early goal with one of their own. Minutes later, the Cougars blocked a pair of shots coming from Tom Decker and Aidan Johnston to turn around and take a shot of their own. Tied now at 1-1, the Crimson and Gold midfield moved the ball up to their offense connecting with Michael Muldoon. Moving quickly, Muldoon found Decker inside the box to extend the Yeomen's lead at the end of the first quarter.
 
Chatham responded in the opening minute of the second period to tie the game at 2-2. A huge save by goalkeeper Eugene Kang gave the ball back to Oberlin's Matt Huang. The longstick midfielder rushed towards cage, converting a long shot on goal to help Oberlin retake their lead. The Yeomen kept the ball rolling ahead of the halftime, scoring another pair of goals coming off the sticks of Niko Maheras and Max Cha. Another goal from the Cougars took the game into halftime, Yeomen with the 5-3 advantage.
 
Coming out of the half, Cha got the visitors on the board again within seconds of the opening whistle. A strong defensive quarter for Oberlin, Kang made back-to-back saves on top of trio of ground balls from the low defensemen. Chatham responded in the final five minutes to come within two of the Oberlin lead. Unable to convert another shot before the whistle, the Yeomen headed into the final period still in control of the game over the Cougars.
 
Back-to-back goals opened the fourth quarter for Oberlin as Decker scored on a man-up opportunity followed a goal from first-year Sam Ryu. The Cougars responded with a pair of their own before Muldoon notched his second goal of the game. The home team scored one more time before Oberlin's Decker capitalized on a turnover to put the game away for the Yeomen, 10-7.
 
The opened day victory was led by Decker who scored a pair of goals, two assists, and tacked on four ground balls. On ther faceoff for the Yeomen was Connor Quinn, winning 13-20 and picking up ten ground balls. Defensively Stone scooped nine ground balls and caused and two turnovers. Starting goalie Kang earned the win making an impressive 22 saves in cage.
 
The Yeomen take the field again on next Saturday, February 26 when they head north to Albion College. Face-off will be at 3pm with a livestream available here and live stats available here.
 
Fans can watch all the home matches live online. Home contests can be accessed on a TV through the official Oberlin College Sports Network app on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.