Men’s Lacrosse Drops the Ball Against Wooster
by Blake Rehberg

After some initial success early in the season, the Oberlin men’s lacrosse team has been in a downhill slump. With four losses over spring break and a 21-1 loss Wednesday against Wooster, the Yeomen’s record has dropped to 1-5.

(photo by Areca Treon)

After the season opener against Marietta the competition the Yeomen have faced has become a lot tougher.
Their first loss was a 16-0 drubbing against Wittenberg on Saturday March 17. The shutout is the only game this season in which the Yeomen have not managed to score at least one goal. Wittenberg sophomore Zach Kulow was named NCAC player of the week for his six goals against Oberlin as he climbed to the lead position in conference scoring.
Next, Oberlin had to face Kenyon, a team that made an appearance in the national playoffs last year. The 18-1 loss was followed by two more defeats, this time by two Division II teams, St. Vincent and Wheeling Jesuit, 16-4 and 18-6 respectively. 
“They have the opportunity to get some of the kinds of kids that we don’t get in here,” Head Coach Jim Donovan said.
Oberlin had high hopes against Wooster, who came into Wednesday’s game winless, but the Fighting Scots quickly put that notion to rest. They scored the first goal in nine seconds. They continued to dominate possession of the ball and the play of the game, as they pumped in eight more shots in the first quarter.
“They played better [Wednesday] than they have all year,” Donovan said.
The Yeomen played much better in the second period. The defense was more organized and junior goalie Dave Smolev made several good saves. However, Wooster still managed to stick another on in the back of the net. The Yeomen answered with a goal of their own from junior Mike Wexler. The Yeomen stayed with the pace of the game and allowed only two more goals before the half.
“We seem to be consistently inconsistent, that’s probably our problem,” Donovan said. “We’ve done some good things at times, but we haven’t done things often enough.”
The disparity between the scores of the first two periods show the inconsistent play that has been a problem for the whole year, and it came back to haunt them in the third period. Wooster came out strong scoring five goals in the first five minutes. The Yeomen became more organized after that initial flurry and held them to just four more goals for the rest of the period.
The Yeomen were not without their moments. They attempted to build some momentum near the end of the third period starting with a run up the sideline by Wexler. Unfortunately, the time ran out of the period before they could put anything in the net.
In the final period, the Yeomen held Wooster to just two more goals for the final score of 21-1.
On top of the inconsistent play, the Yeomen had trouble moving up from defense into offense. Contributing to that problem was the number of balls that were dropped and not recovered in the midfield area.
“The teams that win the ground ball are the teams that are successful,” Donovan said. “We have not won the ground ball all year long.”
Winning more of the ground balls allows more chances for goals. The Yeomen have struggled to put points on the board, scoring only 23 points in six games.
“We struggle on offense and a great deal of that is because we’re very inexperienced on offense,” Donovan said. “We’re a very young team. We’ve got people that haven’t played together very long.” 
The Yeomen face Wittenberg again on Saturday on the road. If they play consistently and win the ground balls they might be able to prevent another shutout.
“We certainly hope we improved since the last time we played them,” Donovan said.