Otterbein men’s lacrosse defeated John Carroll 15-7 at Memorial Stadium to pick up win number six of the season, and their first ever school win in Ohio Athletic Conference history.
The OAC announced last year that it would add both men’s and women’s lacrosse as varsity sports for the first time in the conferences 113-year history. Otterbein missed out on being the first team in OAC history to win a game in conference because Baldwin Wallace defeated Wilmington 32 minutes before Otterbein beat John Carroll.
“It’s a great thing to be a part of history,” said fifth year head coach Collin Hartnett. “You will be remembered as the first team in Otterbein history to win a conference game.”
Otterbein opened the game scoring a goal only 7 seconds into the game from senior Mike Dattolo. The Cardinals added another goal a minute later from sophomore Robbie Gulliano to take a quick 2-0 lead.
Sophomore Carlos Salazar was 19-25 on face offs to help Otterbein keep possession and freshman goalie James Gundling had 5 saves to pick up win number 6 of the season.
The Cardinals scored five unanswered goals to start the third quarter in route to the 15-7 victory. Otterbein is now 6-4 overall and 1-0 in Ohio Athletic Conference play.
“They gave us a lot,” said Hartnett. There was a while we were concerned with what the outcome would be. We were fortunate we have a terrific face-off guy and a strong defense.”
Otterbein next plays Wednesday when they travel to Berea to play Baldwin Wallace.
