Greencastle, IN – The Oberlin College men's lacrosse team traveled across state lines to tangle with the Tigers of DePauw on Saturday afternoon and left town with a 14-5 victory.
The triumph ran the Yeomen's record to 10-2 and 4-1 in the NCAC, marking the program's first 10-win season since 1993 while tying a school-best for conference wins (1994 & 2015) in the process.
Tom Decker and
Niko Maheras led the Yeomen attack with six points apiece as Decker netted five goals and an assist, while Maheras posted four tallies on the scoreboard to go along with a pair of helpers.
Ryan Blasberg also netted a hat trick and dished out one assist in the victory.
It was a slow moving first quarter for both sides as the Yeomen settled for just a 2-1 advantage after 15 minutes of action with goals coming courtesy of Maheras and Blasberg.
The Yeomen would start to find their rhythm on the offensive end in the second session, scoring five times to carry a 7-2 advantage into the halftime intermission. Just a few minutes into the frame, Decker would cash in a feed from Maheras before Blasberg followed with his second score of the game to make it a 4-1 Yeomen lead midway through the quarter. After Chris Schaefer temporarily stopped the Oberlin run, the Yeomen would get right back to work as Decker found the back of the net once again before Maheras deposited back-to-back goals to close out the opening half with a five-point cushion.
The Yeomen would score five times within the first 10 minutes of the third quarter to put the game on ice heading into the final session. Decker opened the barrage, finishing off a helper from Blasberg and
Aidan Johnston would get into the mix after he deposited a pass from Maheras. Blaberg's third goal of the day put the Yeomen in double-digits and then
Michael Muldoon decided to get into the points column with a goal before he assisted Decker a mere minute later.
Decker and Maheras would each score in the fourth quarter to wrap up the Yeomen's offensive production on the afternoon.
The Yeomen finished with an 55-20 advantage in shots, which included a 31-11 margin in shots on goal. OC also won the ground ball battle 49-29 and claimed 14 of the game's 23 face-offs.
Oberlin was all over the Tigers defensively, led by
Matt Huang and
Kiernan Stone as Huang caused five turnovers to go along with two ground balls while Stone forced eight Tiger miscues and scooped up 11 ground balls. It was the eighth time this year that Oberlin held its opponents to single digits scoring.
The Yeomen return home to host the Allegheny College Gators on Wednesday night. The opening face-off is set for 7 p.m.
