George Gion

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — On a rain-soaked day at Edwards-Maurer Field, the No. 19 Wittenberg men's lacrosse team overcame a lightning delay and an upstart Oberlin to secure an 8-6 victory and remained undefeated at 9-0 and 2-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC).

Oberlin matched Wittenberg nearly step-for-step in the first half, fighting to a 4-4 tie late in the second quarter to send the game to halftime in a deadlock.

The Yeomen shocked the Tigers by scoring the first goal of the third quarter, but the 5-4 lead was shortlived. Wittenberg scored just 39 seconds later, kicking off a four-goal run to mount an unshakeable lead.

Junior faceoff man Elliot Avis (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) cued the Tigers' second half success with wins in six of eight faceoffs, finishing the game at 12-of-18 to go with a team-high eight ground balls. Sophomore Alex Previte (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman) scored two unassisted goals during the winning run to finish the game with a team-best three scores.

Senior Brady Christensen (Medina, Ohio/Medina) was responsible for the 5-5 equalizer that began the late push, and junior George Gion (Northfield, Ill./New Trier) sandwiched one score between Previte's second half goals as well.

The Tigers spread their four first-half goals around between four different players, including Previte, senior Mitch Cohagan (Pickerington, Ohio/North), junior Jim Ferris (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) and senior Matt Lord (Pickerington, Ohio/North), who with 99 career goals has moved into a second-place tie in the program's record books.

Lord equaled a mark set by Jeff Collins, who played from 1995 to 1998. Jeff Mayer holds the career record of 103, set over the course of three seasons from 1988 to 1990.

Senior Danny Johnson (Cincinnati, Ohio/Indian Hill) and senior Dan Gaines (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) each picked up three ground balls, while Gaines led the team in caused turnovers with three. Senior goalkeeper Mark DeOliveira (East Hanover, NJ/East Hanover) defended the net for all 60 minutes, stopping nine shots in all, including four in the first quarter.

After just six minutes of gameplay in the first quarter, several flashes of lightning delayed the game nearly an hour. Once resuming, the game continued unhindered despite steady rains.

The Tigers defend both their overall and conference records on the road against No. 10 Denison at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 16.

John Strawn '07