GREENCASTLE, Ind. – The "Battle of the Tigers," as matchups between Wittenberg and DePauw are often called, added another battlefield Tuesday as Wittenberg men's lacrosse trounced first-year program DePauw by a score of 22-2.
Wittenberg finishes the 2013 campaign with an 8-5 overall record and a 3-4 mark in the North Coast Athletic Conference. DePauw's inaugural season now stands at 0-13 overall and 0-7 in NCAC competition with one game remaining.
The game, originally scheduled for April 17 but postponed due to field conditions, was decided within 113 seconds of the opening whistle. Wittenberg launched a 4-0 run with 13:07 remaining in the first quarter as senior Tyler Hall (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Twp.) struck for an unassisted goal.
Freshman Andrew Fuss (New Albany, Ohio/Gahanna Lincoln) followed with the game's second goal just 51 seconds later on a feed from senior Alex Previte (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman), who scored the goal unassisted. The opening rally finished with a strike from sophomore Matt Hugdahl (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie).
Those four players went on to lead the Tigers in the game, topped by Andrew Fuss, who compiled five goals and an assist. Hugdahl posted career highs in both goals and assists with three of each, while Hall and Previte each finished with four points, Hall on four goals and Previte on three goals and one helper.
DePauw broke the game-opening run thanks to a Wittenberg penalty and little more than two minutes later scored another. Wittenberg scored two goals in response before the end of the first period, launching an unanswered string of 16 goals that lasted the rest of the contest.
Other leading Wittenberg scorers included freshman Thomas Fuss (New Albany, Ohio/Gahanna Lincoln), who netted two goals and one assist, sophomore Lewis Thompson (Sandy Hook, Conn./Newtown) with one goal and two assists, and sophomore Andrew Morrison (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) who picked up two goals.
Freshmen Chris Chen (Oakland, NJ/Portsmouth Abbey) and Jeff Sherman (Atkinson, NH/New Hampton School) rounded out the Wittenberg scoring column with one goal each.
Sophomore Ryan Spitzer (Lincolnshire, Ill./Stevenson) won five of the seven faceoffs in which he took part, while sophomore Riley Boehm (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) took the bulk of the draws to go 10-of-18. The pair split the team lead with six groundballs apiece. Freshman Conor O'Brien (York, Maine/York) followed with five groundballs, while Thomas Fuss picked up three.
Sophomore goalkeeper Jesse Langer (New York, N.Y./Salisbury School) faced 12 shots but only six on goal, of which he saved four.
For the game, Wittenberg outshot DePauw 46-6, picked up 34 groundballs to DePauw's 12, forced 27 turnovers while committing only 13, and won 15-of-25 faceoffs.
John Strawn '07