BEREA, Ohio – The second-seeded Baldwin Wallace University men's lacrosse team fell 14-12 to third-seeded and crosstown rival John Carroll University in an Ohio Athletic Conference semifinal game inside George Finnie Stadium.
Senior three-time All-OAC attack Chad Steinwachs (Buffalo, N.Y./Williamsville North) recorded three goals and three assists for a game-high six points as BW's (14-3) leading scorer. Junior All-OAC midfielder Ben Kubiak (Wooster) netted a game-high tying four assists and added one dish for five points. Senior attack Blake Bower (Lewis Center/Olentangy) added a hat trick of his own. Both Bower and Kubiak finish the season tied with 53 goals for the school's single-season goal record.
In the net, sophomore goalkeeper Trent Davis (Ottawa Hills) made a career-high tying 13 saves as he suffered his first loss of the season.
Sophomore attack Kevin Hack led the Blue Streaks (11-6) with a game-high tying four goals. Junior attack Bennett Gorman tallied four points off three goals and one assist while both junior attack Skyler Blake and junior midfielder Colin Corcoran added identical lines of two goals and one assist.
Battling the rain and slick field conditions, neither team could find the back of the net until the 8:52 mark when Blake and the Blue Streaks broke through the stalemate. Bower got his night started just over a minute later, evening the game at 1-1, before John Carroll scored three goals in a two-minute span to take a 4-1 into the second quarter.
Less than a minute into the new period, Hack provided another Blue Streak goal to increase the lead to 5-1. Bower followed with a pair of scores to trim the deficit down to 5-3 with 10:12 left. After an almost 10-minute scoreless span, John Carroll added one more goal to head into the locker room up 6-3.
With Bower providing all of the offense in the first half, Kubiak took over the reigns to begin the third quarter with an unassisted goal. The Yellow Jackets and the Blue Streaks then traded goals to an 8-5 score in favor of John Carroll with 6:35 left. BW began to swing the momentum toward the end of the period with unassisted goals from Steinwachs and Kubiak in the final 1:18 of action, cutting John Carroll's lead down to just 8-7.
The Blue Streaks opened up the fourth quarter extending its lead to two goals before the Yellow Jackets ripped off a 3-0 run, kickstarted by sophomore midfielder Nicholas Nanosky (Medina). Kubiak's unassisted goal tied the game at 9-9 for the first time since the first quarter while a score from senior midfielder Thomas Moesch (Ithaca, N.Y.) gave BW its only lead of the game. John Carroll found the back of the net twice in less than a minute to regain the lead for good, which was followed by three additional Blue Streak goals, to build up to a 14-10 advantage. Steinwachs closed out the game and his stellar Yellow Jacket career with two unassisted goals in the final 1:09 as John Carroll held on for the 14-12 win.
BW concludes its season with a 14-3 record, tying the previous single-season wins record and also setting single-season OAC wins and road victories with eight apiece.
