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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
JCU celebration
Erica Esper
The Blue Streaks played an incredible second half. 
11
Ohio Wesleyan OWUM 2-2
12
Winner John Carroll JCUM 5-0
Ohio Wesleyan OWUM
2-2
11
Final
12
John Carroll JCUM
5-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Ohio Wesleyan OWUM 5 4 2 0 11
John Carroll JCUM 2 2 6 2 12

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse | | Jahiem Peake, Staff Writer

Men's Lacrosse Vanquishes Ohio Wesleyan in Program-Defining Victory

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- In frigid conditions on Saturday against a prestigious program, John Carroll Men's Lacrosse captured a program-defining win.

The No. 11 ranked Blue Streaks vanquished No. 18 Ohio Wesleyan University for the first time in program history, 12-11.

John Carroll has been a force to be reckoned with in the Ohio Athletic Conference for the past decade, but today's win is a sign that the Blue Streaks are making strides on a national level towards the program's ultimate goal of winning a national championship.

"Since I've gotten here, our goal has been to work up the ladder," said Head Coach Joe Rautenstrauch. "OWU is a team that's been around a long time and had a lot of success in Ohio. We have a lot of respect for the program and Coach [Mike] Plantholt. They've kicked our butts the past two times we've played them. 

"But we're at the point now where we expect to win these games. It felt great to win today, it was a 1-goal game, so it could have gone either way. But we've been building towards this. It feels good to reap what we're sowing. We talk with recruits about being a program on the rise. You need to win these games to back it up." 

The Blue Streaks came into the matchup riding a 4-game win streak, with the latest win coming against Grove City College. In the previous two meetings between JCU and OWU, the Battling Bishops came out on top both times. In 2018, the Battling Bishops won 14-5,  and in 2019, the Battling Bishops won in a 21-9 rout. 

At the start of the game, the Blue Streaks came out firing, scoring their first goal just 42 seconds into the first period Ian Flynn. But after that it was all Battling Bishops. 

The Battling Bishops outscored the Blue Streaks 9-4 in the first half. Kevin Hack lead the team in the first half, scoring a pair of Goals. Flynn and Tanner Gill-Snow added goals as well.

At halftime, the Blue Streaks knew they needed to make adjustments. "We challenged the guys to play tougher," said Rautenstrauch. "We practice in the elements everyday in the preseason, we need to be the team that dictates how hard we're hard we're going on ground balls and how well we're doing the little things. In this weather, the hands are cold, the sticks are cold, so you need to shorten passes and be smart with the ball. We delivered." 

John Carroll started out hot in the third quarter. The Blue Streaks scored four huge unanswered goals to get back into the game.

Matt Berdysiak tallied two goals, while Gill-Snow and Hack notched a goal apiece in critical fashion. John Carroll's hot streak narrowed Ohio Wesleyan's lead to just 9-7.

The Battling Bishops and Blue Streaks each found the back of the net twice near the end the third period, as OWU got a couple goals before JCU earned a couple of their own, courtesy of Morgan Morrell and Berdysiak. 

After an exciting third period, the Blue Streaks pulled the score closer, trailing the Battling Bishops just 11-10.

The fourth quarter was a defensive slugfest. The Blue Streaks and Battling Bishops traded unsuccessful with 11 total unsuccessful shots. 

With 5:51 to play, Kevin Hack scored one of his best goals in his 5-year career as the Blue Streak. The Toledo native backhand-scooped a rebound for his 15th goal of the season, knotting the game at 11.

After back-and-forth action for the next five minutes, the Blue Streaks got the ball and a chance to win it. After draining the clock, Kevin Hack placed a perfect pass from X to a waiting Matt Berdysiak in front of the cage. The 6'6 Buffalo native rocketed it home with 22 seconds left for the 12-11 lead.

The Blue Streaks hung on in the final seconds, with Jon Gaglio making a clutch save as time expired to preserve a top-25 victory for the Blue Streaks. 

"I think this is probably the biggest win in program history," said Gaglio. "OWU has always been a great team and an in-state rival. One of the goals Coach Raut talked about when he got here was being the best D-III team in Ohio. This a great first step."

John Carroll's defense played incredibly down the stretch. The Battling Bishops only managed to find the net twice in the half. JCU kept OWU off the board in the fourth quarter.

"We responded well as a team," Gaglio said. "We faced adversity we haven't faced all year as a team. I was happy the way the guys responded and how well the guys played in front of me."

After the halftime adjustments, it was all Blue Streaks. John Carroll beat the Battling bishops in all stat categories in the second half.

"Gaglio came up huge. He had 6 saves in the second half," Rautenstrauch said. "We out-saved them, had fewer turnovers, split faceoffs, out-groundballed them, and cleared it better. That's how you win games." 

After the rocky start, the Blue Streaks showed resiliency and toughness in the second half.

"We talked at halftime about how if you want to wear shortsleeves and no sweats in 5 degrees, you need to play tough," Rautenstrauch said. "They came out and played tough. We said in the locker room, 'We know we can beat them, but we need to play tougher.' And we did." 
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