MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's lacrosse team had a tough time containing Ohio Northern University on Friday (April 3) afternoon and was defeated, 21-4, in an Ohio Athletic Conference matchup at Don Drumm Stadium. The Pioneers fall to 5-7 overall and 1-4 in the OAC. ONU improves to 8-5 on the season and 5-0 in the OAC.
 
"Credit Ohio Northern for coming in and executing at the highest level today," said Marietta head coach Nathan Grover. "Today's game was a great learning experience for us, figuring out where we need to be better so we can compete at that level.  We will learn from this and prepare next week to bounce back! We have 3 games left to continue to fight for our goals and make the OAC playoffs."
 
The first quarter saw Ohio Northern put up seven goals on Marietta, three from Aiden Sexton and two from Jack Chaney.  The Pioneers were only able to muster two shots in the period, but one of those shots was converted to a point as Jeff McKnight (Port Republic, Va./Ignite Christian Academy) scored off an assist from Tommy Imhof (Wooster, Ohio/Wooster).  Still, the Polar Bears led 7-1 going the second period. 
 
The Polar Bears tacked on another score seconds into the second period as Devin Halliday won the faceoff and sent the pass to Ryan Frech for the quick score.  Dominic Cimarolli (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan) got the Pioneers back on the board as he scored from another Imhof assist, but ONU dominated the rest of the half as they added three more scores and took a 13-2 advantage into the intermission. 
 
ONU continued to send shot after shot at the Pioneer defense, and added six more goals to their total during the third period.  Marietta was able to improve on their shot total in the period, but could only muster one score as Sam Leininger (Avon Lake, Ohio/Avon Lake) scored from yet another assist from Imhof, but the Pioneers still trailed 19-3 going into the final period.  Danner Dorothy (West Stockholm, N.Y./Potsdam Central) got a goal for the Pioneers in the closing moments but Marietta could not overcome the difference.  The Polar Bears cruised to the 21-4 conference victory. 
 
Jack Kelly (Cincinnati, Ohio/Archbishop McNicholas) got the start for the Pioneers and finished with 14 saves in the 35 shots on goal he faced. 
 
The Pioneers will return home to battle Wilmington College on next Saturday (April 11). The game is scheduled to start at 2 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 X and Instagram.