First-year Andrew Wright collides with a
Wabash defender during the Monon matchup.
Despite DePauw's dominant victory over Wabash,
the Tiger's fell to Oberlin 9-6 in the season finale on Saturday.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
On Saturday, the most successful season in the short history of DePauw University’s men’s lacrosse program came to an end in an unfortunate fashion at the hands of the Oberlin College Yeomen.
The Tigers dropped their season finale on the road in Ohio by a final score of 9-6. The loss means DePauw will wrap up its 2015 campaign with a 6-9 overall record and a 2-4 mark in North Coast Athletic Conference play.
Despite the loss, the Tigers still set the program’s record for wins in a season with six. In their first two years of existence DePauw had seasons with wins of zero and three.
“We’re definitely taking steps in the right direction,” sophomore Dan Kantor said. “That’s evident with all the records we’ve broken this season but we’re definitely looking to get better in the offseason.”
The quest for a seventh victory this spring was halted by a less than stellar offensive attack from the Tigers.
“It wasn't really much that they did,” sophomore Benton Givens said. “We kind of beat ourselves. When we executed our plays and did the fundamentals we were scoring easily.”
DePauw quickly jumped out to a two goal lead, however, with tallies coming from sophomore Nick Woerner at 14:12 and 6:38 on assists from first-years Andrew Wright and Ben Sherman.
The Yeomen quickly responded with a goal at 5:08 and then another with less than a minute to play in the first quarter to tie the score at two.
In the second quarter, the Yeomen defense really shut down the Tigers. DePauw failed to find the back of the net in the 15 minutes of play and the two Oberlin goals allowed them to take a 4-2 lead going into the halftime recess.
The Tigers quickly erased that deficit when the teams returned to the field for the start of the second half. Goals from first-year Jack Roberts and Sherman, with both scores being assisted by Wright, tied the game with just over 11 minutes to play in the third quarter.
Just under five minutes after Sherman’s goal, sophomore Sam Alkema gave the Tigers their first lead of the game since the 5:08 mark of the first quarter.
The Yeomen quickly responded, however, with a pair of goals 10 seconds apart to take a one goal lead into the final 15 minutes of play.
Oberlin’s Matthew Fox was the hero for the Yeomen in the final stanza. After playing a scoreless eight minutes to open the quarter, Fox found the back of the net to push the Oberlin lead to two.
“It was their senior day,” Kantor said. “They were all pretty fired up. I mean they got all the momentum after they scored a few goals late in the fourth quarter. We really just made some bad mistakes in the fourth quarter that killed us.”
After a goal by Alkema made it a one point contest once again, Fox struck two more times to give the Yeomen some room to breath.
Fox’s goal with 2:18 to play, pushed the lead back up to three and thus ended DePauw’s hopes of a comeback.
Despite the loss, the Tigers were still satisfied with their overall effort to wrap up the season.
“I don't think any of us are satisfied with a loss but we didn't have a horrible game and overall we are pretty happy about the season,” Givens said.
While the season-ending loss might not sit well in the stomachs of the Tigers, hope could be on the way in the form of next year’s recruiting class.
“We currently have 15 commits for the 2016 season,” Alkema said. “Of which 7 are attackmen, allowing more competition and and growth within our offense. We're really looking forward to having a deeper bench next year.”
For now, the Tigers will have to be satisfied with the six wins in 2015 and look to improve next spring.