Oberlin, OH – The Oberlin College men's lacrosse team opened their 2023 season in dominant fashion, taking down Chatham 17-7 on Saturday afternoon. The high-scoring action was led by second-year Ryan Blasberg with a career-high six goals and three assists for nine points. The Yeomen move to 1-0 on the season ahead of an MIAA matchup next week.
 
Behind Blasberg's six goals was rookie Jacob Starcke with four goals and Sam Ryu with three. The duo earned the first and second hat tricks of their careers. Joe Barocas led the defense from the cage in his first career start with 11 saves and three ground balls. Kiernan Stone led added another six ground balls and two caused turnovers while Ben Johnson added another pair of caused turnovers and four ground balls.
 
Although losing the opening faceoff to Chatham, JT Starcke forced a turnover in the midfield and collected the ground ball to give Oberlin the first chance at cage. In Ryu's first shot, he scored the season's first goal to put Oberlin up 1-0. The scoring picked up when, minutes later, Blasberg, Niko Maheras, and Michael Muldoon scored goals during a locked-in penalty. Chatham tried to slow the Crimson and Gold, but the momentum pushed on as Blasberg and J. Starcke tacked on more goals before the end of the period.
 
The second quarter started the same way the first ended, with another plethora of Oberlin scores. After J. Starcke's second goal, the Cougars doubled down on defense and held the Yeomen off the board while cuting the lead to six at the half.
 
The Cougars seemed to regain control of the game in the opening minutes as they scored their third-straight goal to bring the score to 10-5. The sophomore J. Starcke came alive midway through to put away back-to-back goals and hold the Chatham at a six-goal distance.
 
With victory impending, Oberlin tallied another five insurance goals in the final quarter for the 17-7 win. Solomon Brennan scored his first career goal in the final minutes of play as fellow rookie Drew Bornstein connected with him at the 1:08 mark.
 
Oberlin returns to their field on Friday, February 24 for their next matchup against Albion. The game is set for 4pm with a live stream will be 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.