In the first half of today's men's lacrosse match at Wooster, the visiting Blue Streaks scored nine goals and the host Fighting Scots scored eight.
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In the second half, the Blue Streaks scored nine goals once again ... but Wooster only managed three.

Second half adjustments, both in personnel and strategy, helped John Carroll roll by the host team, 18-11, Sunday in Wooster, Ohio.

"We played three matches over spring break, and we wanted to be 3-0, but we knew had to win at least two so we accomplished that," said head coach Joe Rautenstrauch. "In terms of experience, we are playing a lot of young guys and they are stepping up in big spots, so that will only make us better going forward.

Jon Gaglio is one of those young guys and one of those adjustments. He came in at the nine minute mark to tend the nets, and came up with 12 saves.

"He provided the spark we needed at the time," said Rautenstrauch.

JCU also made some defensive moves that limited the Wooster offense. Despite a 10-3 edge for Wooster in the second half in faceoffs, the Blue Streaks won the ground ball battle (16-11) and bothered the Fighting Scots into 11 turnovers over the final 30 minutes.

John Carroll jumped out to a 3-1 lead early in the contest, but when Ted Wells scored at the 2:20 mark of the first period, Wooster had its first lead of the day, 6-5.

After combining for 13 goals in the opening period, only four goals were tallied in the second. Three belonged to John Carroll - Brendan Whitty, Skyler Blake and Kevin Hack - and the Blue Streaks led by a 9-8 score at the break.

The Fighting Scots scored the first two goals of the second half, but that was when the John Carroll defense clamped down and kept them off the scoreboard for over 20 minutes.

In the meantime, the Blue Streaks offense kept grinding. Blake tied the game at 10-10 at the 8:54 mark, and Hack gave the Blue & Gold the lead for good 90 seconds later. Cam Gerard then followed with back-to-back goals, giving JCU a 13-10 lead heading into the final period.

Blake (2), Hack, Whitty and Bennett Gorman all found the back of the net in the final 15 minutes to put the game out of reach.

Blake, Gerard and Hack all finished with four goals, while Whitty added three. Blake led the team in assists with four.

Defensively, Clayton Karam led JCU with ten ground balls and led all players with five caused turnovers. Whitty added five ground balls to his stat line.

John Carroll is now 3-1 on the year while Wooster falls to 2-2. The Fighting Scots had already beaten two Ohio Athletic Conference opponents (Capital and Otterbein) prior to facing the Blue Streaks.