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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
JCU Men's Lacrosse Seniors 2024
Peter Wangechi
The Blue Streaks honored five seniors before Saturday night's game. 
8
Winner Ohio Northern ONUM 6-3, 1-0 OAC
5
John Carroll JCUM 1-4, 0-1 OAC
Winner
Ohio Northern ONUM
6-3, 1-0 OAC
8
Final
5
John Carroll JCUM
1-4, 0-1 OAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Ohio Northern ONUM 2 2 2 2 8
John Carroll JCUM 2 1 1 1 5

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse | | Joe Ginley '16, SID

Skid Continues for Men's Lacrosse, as JCU Loses on Senior Night to ONU

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS – For the better portion of the last decade, John Carroll Men's Lacrosse has held a vice grip of the Ohio Athletic Conference and many of the teams in the league.

Maintaining the spot atop the pedestal is difficult, as Saturday proved. The Blue Streaks lost the OAC opener and dropped the program's first-ever defeat to Ohio Northern University on Saturday evening. 

The Polar Bears spoiled John Carroll's Senior Night with the 8-5 defeat of the Blue Streaks. 

The keys were ONU dominating the faceoffs and thus maintaining possession for much of the game, forcing turnovers on clears, and making key stops. 

The Blue Streaks got off to a nice start, with Josh Lombardo finding the back of the net within the first minute, though the Polar Bears responded fairly quickly. Colin Morrissey fired home a man-up goal off a Braden Zarek assist near the midway mark, but the lead only lasted a few minutes. ONU and JCU stood deadlocked at two apiece after the first quarter.

Near the midway point of the second quarter, the Blue Streaks grabbed the lead back with a beautiful man-up goal. Zarek fed Vinny Fiorella down low, and the grad student deked and popped home a shot. However, the Polar Bears stole the lead back, with two goals in the span of a minute, the latter occurring as JCU was trying to get a penalized player back on the field. 

The Polar Bears held a 4-3 lead heading into halftime, with plenty of cheers by ONU fans who traveled up to University Heights for the game.

Ohio Northern controlled the action for the first portion of the third quarter. John Carroll did not get a shot until the 8-minute mark, with ONU winning a pair of faceoffs and getting a pair of man-up opportunities. The Polar Bears scored on both, at 12:55 and 8:59, to really get into the driver's seat with a 6-3 advantage. 

With 6:05 left in the third, the Polar Bears got a rare two-man advantage. The Blue Streaks stood tall, killing it off, and ended a lengthy scoreless streak at the 3-minute mark. Billy Paladino hit a one-timer from close off a pretty pass by Zarek. JCU trailed by two entering the fourth quarter.

A costly turnover near midfield led to an empty net goal by ONU, stretching the advantage back to three goals. Near the midpoint of the fourth, ONU doubled up the Blue Streaks, though the Blue Streaks didn't stop fighting. 

With 5:51 to play, ONU was called for a critical 2-minute penalty. About a minute into it, Morrissey fired home a shot off a Zarek pass. But that was the only goal JCU could manage, and the Polar Bears held off the Blue Streaks. 

Braden Zarek led the JCU offense with 4 points, all assists. Billy Paladino topped JCU with 3 groundballs. Jon Gaglio tabbed 11 saves. 

ONU critically won 11-of-17 faceoffs and held JCU to 67% (14-of-21) on clears. 

John Carroll will look to get back on track next week, heading to face Muskingum on Friday afternoon. 
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