MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's lacrosse team celebrated Senior Day on Saturday (April 8) and then participated in a home conference matchup with Ohio Northern University. After a closely contested first period, the Polar Bears exploded for six goals in the second quarter and never looked back, defeating the Pioneers, 15-6. The Pioneers fall to 5-6 overall and 3-2 in the OAC. ONU improves to 8-3 on the season and 3-1 in the OAC.
The Polar Bears scored quickly in the first period as John Lynn quickly put Ohio Northern on the board, but that would be the only scoring in the first period. Marietta finally answered three minutes into the next period as
Thomas Zerman (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville South) scored off a
Josh Walters (Cleves, Ohio/Taylor) assist, tying the game at one. Over the final 10 minutes of the half, ONU would go on a six-goal scoring run and they took a 7-1 lead into intermission.
Nate Neal (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) scored the Pioneers' first goal of the second half just two minutes in to cut the Polar Bear lead to five.
Colton Abate (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) added a goal at the 9:02 mark, aided by a
Connor Ficke (Saint Leonard, Md./Calvert) assist. Ficke then scored four minutes later, but the Pioneers still found themselves with a 13-4 deficit going into the final period.
Both teams scored two goals in the fourth quarter. For Marietta, Ficke tallied his second goal of the match and then assisted on
Chase Mullen's (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) goal at the 2:17 mark. The distance was too great and Ohio Northern claim the conference victory, 15-6.
Ficke, one of the many seniors celebrated today, finished with two goals and two assists on the afternoon.
Nathan Grover (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) won 12-of-21 faceoffs and led the way with six groundballs. Defensively,
Zach Rush (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central) led the team with two caused turnovers.
Ben Millard (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) played in 55 minutes in goal for the Pioneers recording 12 saves.
Marietta travel to battle John Carroll University on Wednesday (April 12). The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Fans can follow all 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.
