Men’s lacrosse: No. 9 Buckeyes top No. 11 Johns Hopkins for first Big Ten win

Ray Bruster
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 03:59:26 +0000
Lacrosse, News, Sports, Buckeyes, J.T. Blubaugh, Jake Withers, Lukas buckley, men's lacrosse, Ohio State lacrosse, osu, Tom Carey, Tre Leclaire

The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team huddles before its 8-7 win over University of Massachusetts on Feb. 18. Credit: Courtesy of OSU Athletics

The No. 9 Ohio State men’s lacrosse team found a way Sunday night against No. 11 Johns Hopkins, defeating the Blue Jays 13-9.

The Buckeyes (10-2, 1-1 Big Ten) leading scorer was OSU sophomore attack Jack Jasinski with four goals. OSU senior midfielder Johnny Pearson and redshirt freshman Lukas Buckley added two goals apiece.

“I think the men did a nice job of hunkering down on the offensive end,” said OSU coach Nick Myers. “We knew the goals were going to come for us eventually. ?I thought coach Ross did a good job with preparing the men this week and we were happy to come out with a win.”

OSU trailed 5-3 after the first quarter, but the Buckeyes outscored Johns Hopkins 6-2 in the middle quarters to put them over the top.

“During halftime coach told us we gotta settle down,” Jasinski said. “I ended putting the ball in the net a bunch of times.”

The Buckeyes struck the first goal of the game in the first period. OSU midfielder Collin Chell made the first goal for the Buckeyes. ?Minutes later John Hopkins junior midfielder Joel Tinney scored his first goal of the day tying the game 1-1. ?

With 8:13 remaining in the first quarter, John Hopkins Joel Tinney scored to put the Blue Jays back on top 2-1, but OSU midfielder John Withers answered just five seconds later tying the game at 2.

In the first five minutes of the second quarter, OSU tacked on three goals — two with an extra man — which seemed to grab momentum along with a 6-5 lead. However, junior defender Brendan Barger and sophomore defender Matt Borges committed penalties in the later stages of the quarter and the Blue Jays took advantage of those opportunities with two goals. John Hopkins led 6-5 heading into the half.

In total, there were six penalties committed in the quarter.

“We felt like there was a sense of urgency,” Myers said. “We felt like we need to get back into this Big Ten race. I think the guys were pretty frustrated in how they did last weekend. And when we got back home we just got back to work.”

In the third, that sense of urgency showed.

Redshirt senior goalie Tom Carey came up with two crucial saves while senior attack Eric Fannell and Buckley provided the offense with three goals.

OSU’s leading goal scorer freshman midfielder Tre LeClaire scored early in the fourth quarter, extending the Buckeyes lead to 10-7.

After John Hopkins Shack Stanwick scored cut into the OSU lead, Jasinski netted two goals past Blue Jays goalie Brock Turnbaugh to seal the Buckeyes’ first Big Ten win of the season. The victory snapped a two game losing streak.

Next week OSU will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to play the Michigan Wolverines.