DePauw's men's lacrosse team faced Wittenberg on Wednesday in an NCAC conference matchup. The Tigers have been trending downward since the middle of March, so they were looking to this matchup to get back on track. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out, as the Tigers were massacred by Wittenberg in a lopsided 17-8 defeat.
The game was scoreless for the first four minutes of play, but Wittenberg eventually put away their first of many goals at the 10:33 mark. It did not take the Tigers long to respond to the first goal, as junior midfielder Grant Skipper knotted the game back up just nine seconds later. This was the last time in the game that the score was tied.
Once the The Tigers let up a goal at the 7:59 minute mark, the game belonged to Wittenberg. Wittenberg lit up the the Tigers for five more goals before the first quarter came to an end. The Tigers were not able to build upon that lone goal they had early in the quarter, so they were facing a mighty 7-1 deficit.
“I think the first quarter really screwed us," Skipper said. "We had a lot of missed opportunities and I think if we would have nailed those, it would have been a whole different game.”
The second quarter saw a much better offensive showing from the Tigers, but not enough to mount a serious comeback. After allowing two more goals to Wittenberg, first-year attackman Lewis Andrews was able to bury one at the 4:28 minute mark. That same cycle would repeat once more as the Tigers allowed two more goals to Wittenberg before first-year attackman Steen Jorgensen scored at the 2:52 minute mark.
The Tigers were able to put one more away before the end of the half when first-year attackman Austin Macdonald scored with 59 seconds left in the half. This was not the final goal of the half. Wittenberg scored another one with just 20 seconds left.
The Tigers were scored three goals in the second quarter in comparison to Wittenberg’s five, so Wittenberg went into the second half holding a comfortable 12-4 lead.
The third quarter started out with a Wittenberg goal within the first minute; however, the Tigers did not let that discourage them. They were able to string together three straight goals from first-year midfielder Jimmy DiBiase, first-year attackman Matthew Dauw and sophomore midfielder Andrew Wright.
The Tigers gradually gained momentum as they brought themselves back into the game, but that momentum quickly depleted when they allowed three straight goals right back to Wittenberg. Jorgensen was able to score one more time with three minutes remaining, but that wasn’t the last goal of the game.
Wittenberg capped off their assault on the Tigers’ defense by scoring one more time with one minute left. By the time the final whistle blew, Wittenberg had posted four more goals up on the board to cap off a 17-8 victory.
“We’ve had a couple losses like this throughout the season,” Jorgensen said. “I think a lot of it for this season and our team, for this year at least, is that we have the pieces, and we just need to make them click.”
Now that they have entered the final stretch of the season with just three games left, the Tigers have not lost focus of what’s important. Players like Macdonald know that stepping up and finishing the season strong is what’s best now.
“We’ve kind of just been emphasizing playing as a team, building each other up and getting as many wins in these last three games as we can, so we can head into next season with some good energy,” he said.
The Tigers have now lost seven of their last eight games, falling to a 4-8 record. Their next shot to redeem themselves will be tomorrow, when they face conference opponent Hiram at home. The game is set to start at 2 p.m.