Freshman goalie Zach Talyor makes a save during practice.
The men's lacrosse team lost to Wittenberg 17-6 on Wednesday evening.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
Poor starts have become an unfortunate theme for DePauw University’s men’s lacrosse team this season.
The Tigers trailed 10-0 at when they lost to Dension University and Albion College and then trailed by four after the first quarter against The College of Wooster.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, that theme continued as they fell behind big once again, this time falling to North Coast Athletic Conference rival Wittenberg on the road by a final score of 17-6 on Wednesday night.
“They were very strong in the midfield,” sophomore Sam Alkema said. “They moved the ball fast and were able capitalize on our mistakes.”
The Tigers of Wittenberg didn’t waste anytime building up a lead on DePauw. Wittenberg scored twice in the first two minutes of the game and then added two more separated by less than a minute later on in the first quarter.
DePauw managed to battle back with a tally late in the first quarter. First-year Andrew Wright found the back of the net for the Tigers off of an assist from Alkema with just under two minutes to play in the opening quarter.
The second stanza, however, belonged solely to Wittenberg. The Tigers scored five times in the quarter on goals from five separate players. And once again, they scored in bunches.
Wittenberg found the back of the net twice in 43 seconds and then scored three more goals in the final five minutes of the first half.
Wittenberg would then go on to score two of the first three goals of the first half and led 11-2 with just over 20 minutes left to play. It was there that DePauw made its only real charge. The Tigers scored the game’s next three goals on tallies from first-year Ben Sherman and sophomores Benton Givens and Grant Skipper.
DePauw allowed two more goals in the final 121 seconds of the third quarter, however, and Wittenberg built the lead back up to eight.
Wright stuck for DePauw 14 seconds into the fourth quarter but Wittenberg made sure that DePauw wouldn’t get back into the game. Wittenberg scored the final four goals of the game to round out the scoring at 17-6.
First-year Joe Musto made 14 saves for the Tigers in the loss while Wittenberg goalkeeper Jay Dolan was called upon to make five saves en route to the victory.
One problem some of the DePauw players mentioned was their depleted roster. Before the season got underway, the program was faced with several players choosing to quit the team, which finally caused an impact on Wednesday night.
“The effort was definitely there tonight, but our small roster is finally starting to catch up to us,” sophomore Dan Kantor said. “It’s pretty late in the season and our guys are starting to get run down and are getting pretty tired.”
First year Jack Gomez reiterated some of Kantor’s comments, speaking on roster size as the biggest difference between Wittenberg and DePauw.
“Probably depth,” Gomez said. “They have more fresh legs throughout the game.”
The loss drops the Tigers back to 4-6 overall and to a meager 1-4 in NCAC play. It is also marks DePauw’s second loss in as many games and they have been outscored 31-9 over that stretch.
“The past two games have been tough for us fundamentally,” Alkema said. “The passing and catching just wasn't there. This week we are really focusing on getting back to the basics and moving the ball. We're aiming for a big turnaround this weekend with a conference game against Hiram.”
A turnaround may be exactly what the Tigers will get as they will head to Hiram College for a meeting with the Terriers this Saturday. The Terriers sit at 3-7 on the season overall and have the same 1-4 conference record as the Tigers.
Said Kantor: “We’ve got Hiram this weekend and they’re not as tough of a team as our previous opponents have been, so we’re looking to get our confidence up by beating on them a little bit and taking it from there.”