BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University men's lacrosse team it fell to John Carroll University in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship on Lou Groza Field at the Roehm Athletic Complex.
BW (13-2), who closes out its season as the OAC Regular Season Champions, was led by sophomore attacker Kyler Byerly (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) and freshman midfielder Trevor Stevens (Buffalo, N.Y. / Lancaster) with two goals apiece. John Carroll (14-1), who advances to the NCAA Division III National Tournament next week, was led by sophomore attacker Matt Berdysiak with a game-high four goals. Senior All-OAC attacker Skylar Blake contributed three goals and junior midfielder Ian Flynn added two.
The Blue Streaks opened the scoring when found the back of the cage at the 13:29 mark. The Yellow Jackets went on a 3-0 run to take the 2-1 advantage on scores by senior All-OAC and Academic attacker Nick Nanosky (Medina) and a man-up tally from Byerly at 10:30. John Carroll answer back with its own 2-0 goals getting both scores from Blake with the last coming at the 8:36 mark. BW closed out the first quarter scoring as freshman attacker Gunner MacMillan (Henrietta, N.Y. /Rush Henrietta) and Stevens found the back of the cage with the last coming with 27 seconds remaining.
The Blue Streaks regained the lead as it opened the second quarter scoring on a goal by Berdysiak at the 11:16 mark. The Yellow Jackets got their own score of the second stanza when Stevens scored unassisted at 4:46. John Carroll took the 6-5 lead into the intermission as it scored two goals seven seconds apart with the last coming with 10 seconds remaining.
Each team scored a goal in the third quarter. BW would get its final score of the game when Byerly found the back of the cage at 3:58. The Blue Streaks regained the lead at 7-6 when Berdysiak scored ay 3:58.
The fourth quarter belonged to John Carroll as it scored five goals to capture the 12-6 victory.
Between the pipes for the Yellow Jackets, sophomore Joe Storner (Louisville, Ky. / St. Xavier) suffered the loss as he allowed 12 goals with 14 saves.
