Box Score Faced with a quick wakeup call, the youthful John Carroll University men's lacrosse team looked to show poise and control in its OAC opener at Otterbein in Saturday afternoon in Westerville, Ohio.

John Carroll briefly overcame a quick goal by Otterbein to start the game but could not keep pace with the veteran Cardinals. Otterbein, a NCAA Tournament team from last season, regrouped to take the 15-7 decision.

The Cardinals' Mike Dattolo scored just eight seconds in and Otterbein looked to set a quick, aggressive pace early.

Having compiled a 9-1 non-conference record the Blue Streaks did not panic and went right to work.

Keegan Flinter put JCU on the board at the 11:52 mark of the first quarter to cut the Otterbein lead to 2-1. The Blue and Gold would add a second unanswered goal from Declan O'Grady to tie the score at two with 5:04 remaining in the first half.

With both teams playing overly aggressive John Carroll was able to take advantage of a 1-minute man-up opportunity when Michael Roth found the back of the net with 2:26 remaining in the first to put the Blue and Gold up 3-2.

The lead would not hold as Otterbein would recover to score five unanswered goals in the second quarter to head into halftime with the 7-3 lead.

The Cardinals opened up a 6-goal lead at 9-3 to start the second half before John Carroll found the back of the net. Roth found the back of the net for the second time in the game with 9:50 remaining in the third.

JCU pulled within three goals at 10-7 with a 3-0 run to close out the third quarter and start the fourth. Otterbein responded with a 4-0 run to put the game out of reach and extend the lead back to seven goals.

O'Grady and Roth led the attack with two goals each. Tommy Adolf paced the defense with four caused turnovers.

John Carroll returns home to face Mount Union at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.