CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. - With a 17-3 road win over Wabash, a first-year men's lacrosse program, the Wittenberg Tigers officially punched their ticket to the 2015 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament.
Wittenberg's win moved the Tigers to 8-5 overall and 6-2 in the NCAC, heading into their regular season finale against Aurora at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis, Ind. Wabash fell to 1-11 overall and 0-7 in the NCAC.
Wittenberg took control of the game from the outset, scoring all six goals of the first quarter en route to a 10-0 lead. After Wabash got on the board with 3:02 remaining before halftime, Wittenberg scored the final goal of the first half and then added three goals in the third period.
The final shot count was a whopping 53-15 margin in favor of Wittenberg, and the Tigers also dominated in the face-off circle by a margin of 16-6.
Individually, the Tigers spread 17 goals throughout the lineup as 11 different players scored in the game, in addition to seven different players with assists. Six Tigers scored two goals in the game: junior Thomas Fuss (New Albany, Ohio/Gahanna Lincoln), senior Sean Kelleher (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), sophomore Austin Brady (Pickerington, Ohio/North), senior Lewis Thompson (Sandy Hook, Conn./Newtown), freshman Sam Gress (Granville, Ohio/Granville) and senior Ryan Spitzer ().
Sophomore Anthony Becker (Galloway, Ohio/Wellington School) and sophomore Joseph Crawford (Arlington, Va./Yorktown) each dished out two assists to lead Wittenberg in that department.
Freshman Brendan Rigney (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) led Wittenberg in ground balls with seven, in addition to 10 face-off wins. Also of note, senior Riley Boehm (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) won six face-offs and collected four ground balls, while Rigney, senior Will Stocker (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin) and junior Conor O'Brien (York, Maine/York) each were credited with two caused turnovers.
In goal, a trio of Tigers shared the playing time. Sophomore Nick Gregory (Mukilteo, Wash./Kamiak) was tops in saves with four as he played the entire third quarter.
Written By: Ryan Maurer