Oberlin, Ohio – The highly-touted Denison University Big Red lived up to their reputation, earning a 16-9 win over the Oberlin College men's lacrosse team on Tuesday night at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex.
 
The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Yeomen as they fell back to 9-2 and 3-1 in the NCAC. The Big Red moved to 8-4 and remained unblemished in the NCAC at 4-0.
 
Tom Decker led the Oberlin effort with four points on a goal and three assists, while Ryan Blasberg paced the scoring production with three tallies in the loss.
 
The Big Red raced out to an early lead scoring the game's first seven goals before the Yeomen finally settled in. Blasberg would stop the bleeding with his first of two first-half tallies with 48 ticks left in the first quarter.
 
The Yeomen buckled down defensively in the second period, holding Denison scoreless for the first 12:29 of the session as the Yeomen scored twice early in the period to trim the gap down to 7-3. Sam Ryu sent in the first Oberlin goal of the quarter, finishing off a fast-break feed from Decker at the 11:11 mark and Blasberg would cap the Yeomen's first-half scoring with 3:25 left in the frame as he deposited a nice lead pass from Bobby deLuna.
 
Denison would ultimately carry a 10-3 lead into the intermission and Nate Kay would score 35 seconds into the third period to increase the advantage. Decker would respond a minute later with the help of a JT Starcke assist and the two foes would trade two more goals as the quarter wore on. A man-up finish from Niko Maheras off a Decker pass had Oberlin within seven and moments later the rookie from Brookline, Massachusetts, had the deficit down to six. Following another Big Red goal, Max Cha would find the back of the net in the closing moments of the period to make it a 13-6 game heading into the final frame.
 
The Big Red would score the first three goals of the fourth quarter to all but seal the victory but the Yeomen kept fighting to the bitter end, taking advantage of a two-minute non-releasable to score two more goals which came from Michael Muldoon and Blasberg.
 
Kiernan Stone led the defensive effort with five ground balls and two caused turnovers, while Eugene Kang made 12 stops in the loss.   
 
Oberlin will be back in action on Saturday afternoon at DePauw University. The opening face-off is set for 1 p.m.