WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Marietta College men's lacrosse took their winning streak to four with a 13-2 road win over Wilmington College on Saturday (April 1) afternoon. The four consecutive wins is the longest winning streak in program history. With the win the Pioneers improve to 5-4 overall and 3-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The three OAC wins equals the most ever in Marietta men's lacrosse history. With the loss the Quakers fall to 3-6 overall and 0-3 in the OAC.
"Overall a good showing today," said Marietta Head Coach
Ben Suchomma. "It was great to see everyone on the team get in. Both offense and defense continue to improve game by game."
Marietta put together a strong opening quarter and jumped out to big 4-1 lead. Both teams battled back and forth for the first few minutes, but the Pioneers lit up the scoreboard first.
Nate Neal (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) took a great pass from
Colton Abate (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) and put Marietta up 1-0 at the 9:50 mark. Just a few seconds later, Marietta scored again when
Connor Ficke (Saint Leonard, Md./Calvert) set up Abate with a great pass and Abate deposited the ball in the net. After Wilmington finally got on the board at the eight-minute mark, they were shut out for the rest of the half. Marietta got two late scores from Abate and one from
Chase Franklin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon), taking that 4-1 lead into the second period. Franklin and Abate added a goal apiece in the second period and
Chase Mullen (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) also scored, and Marietta went into intermission with 7-1 lead.
The Pioneers kept the Quakers scoreless into the third period, all the while extending their lead.
Kyle Fleshman (Davidsonville, Md./South River) scored early in the period, Abate added yet another goal and Ficke was able to slip two goals past the Wilmington goalkeeper. Marietta was firmly in control, 11-1, going into the final period. Neal and
Thomas Zerman (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville South) each scored a goal in the final stanza, surrounding a late score for Wilmington, and the Pioneers cruised to a 13-2 victory.
Ben Millard (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) played all 60 minutes in the net for Marietta. He faced 17 shots, eight of which were on goal, and made 6 saves.
Abate was leading goal scorer for the Pioneers with four. Neal, Franklin, and Ficke had two goals apiece. Ficke also assisted on three others on the day.
Nathan Grover (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) handled the faceoff well on the afternoon, winning 10 of 17. He also picked up five groundballs.
Carson Meckler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) led a stellar defensive effort as he caused three turnovers.
Barrett Lindell (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mariemont),
Zach Rush (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central), Mullen, and Franklin all had two caused turnovers in the matchup.'
The Pioneers will return home and play this Saturday (April 5) when they face Capital University, with the game scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Fans can follow all of the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
