With a strong second half effort, the John Carroll University men's lacrosse team earned the right to host the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship game for the second consecutive season.

The top-seeded Blue Streaks (11-4) rolled in the second half past the No 4-seed Otterbein Cardinals (8-10), 15-5, on Wednesday night in University Heights, Ohio. With the win, JCU will host Capital Crusaders on Saturday night on Wasmer Field at Don Shula Stadium.

Leading the Blue Streaks was senior Declan O'Grady, who had seven points, off of four goals and three assists in the match. Otterbein's Joe Sanfillipo matched the game-high mark for goals, netting four of his own along with an assist.

Otterbein's Mike Brendle scored less than three minutes following the opening whistle, but JCU's Michael Hubert answered with one of his three goals of the evening to knot it up 1:09 later.
Continuing the trend, Colin Corcoran and MacGregor Roberts each net a goal to give JCU three straight goals to close out the first quarter.

O'Grady came out of the break to score his 25th goal of the season 1:31 into the second quarter, with JCU's Colin Rice adding another three minutes later.

The Cardinals answered, outscoring JCU 3-1 with the aid of Sanfillipo's two goals. Sanfilipo's second goal of the second quarter came with 14 seconds remaining in the half, but the Blue Streaks took the lead into the intermission, 6-4.

At the break, JCU had controlled 22 ground balls to Otterbein's nine, while winning 12 of the match's 13 face-offs. Braden Kaib had all 12 of JCU's face-off controls. Otterbein took their pre-half momentum into the third quarter, as Sanfillipo scored his third goal of the match at the 9:45 mark.

Hubert brought the pace back into JCU's favor, extending JCU's lead to three goals with a little over five minutes remaining. O'Grady scored his second goal of the match, along with Keegan Flinter, who scored his first of the match off of a Hubert assist, to take a 9-5 lead into the final quarter.

O'Grady then proceeded to net his third of the match 42 seconds into the fourth period. With his third goal, O'Grady has not crossed the three or more goal threshold six times in the 2017 season. O'Grady then proceeded to net his 28th and 29th goals of the season, along with Hubert netting his third of the match, as the Blue Streaks took their largest lead of the game, eight goals, down the stretch.

The 13-5 mark would not prevail, as the Blue Streaks ripped off nine unanswered goals down the stretch.

Sanfillipo would net his fifth and final goal with 1:05 remaining, but it would not be enough as the JCU advanced to the conference championship game for the second consecutive year.

At the final whistle, the Blue Streaks controlled 39 ground balls to Otterbein's 17, and won 20 of the match's 25 face-offs.