After traveling 423 miles to Columbus, Ohio the 11th-ranked Blue Jays men’s lacrosse team faced off against the ninth-ranked Ohio State University (OSU) Buckeyes in Big Ten Conference action. The Blue Jays fell to the Buckeyes in a battle that ended in a score of 13-9.
The action did not take long to get started: Barely a minute after the opening face-off, Ohio State’s Colin Chell scored an unassisted goal to kick off the scoring for the day.
Junior midfielder Joel Tinney answered with a pair of goals for the Blue Jays, both unassisted, to put the Blue Jays in the lead 2-1 midway through the first quarter.
Just five seconds after Tinney captured the lead for Hopkins, OSU’s Jake Withers erased the deficit, scoring his first goal of the season.
Junior Shack Stanwick and senior John Crawley also got in on the goal parade, each adding one goal apiece to give Hopkins a two-goal lead deep into the first quarter before the Buckeyes’ Johnny Pearson capitalized on an assist from teammate Lukas Buckley, cutting the lead to just one goal.
With a little more than one minute left in the first quarter, the Blue Jays regained their two-goal lead after sophomore Alex Concannon found freshman Forry Smith, who buried his eighth goal of the season to close the first at 5-3 in favor of the visiting Blue Jays.
Just as they had in the first quarter, the Buckeyes got off to a quick start, this time sparked by a goal from Jack Jasinski three minutes into the second quarter.
Less than a minute later, Ohio State tied the game up when Austin Shanks, with some help from Chell, found the back of the net, notching the game at five apiece.
Ten seconds after the scoreboard leveled, the Buckeyes recaptured the lead when Eric Fannell delivered a pass to Pearson, who kept the momentum in favor of OSU and put the score at 6-5 in favor of the home team.
After eight minutes of scoreless lacrosse, the scoreboard finally lit up again, this time for the Blue Jays, as Patrick Fraser used a pass from Kyle Marr to hit the back of the mesh and put the score at six apiece.
The Blue Jays’ Cody Radziewicz finished off the scoring for the half. He received a pass from Stanwick and buried the ball in the back of the net to put Hopkins back in the lead at 7-6 at halftime.
The third quarter saw very little action, but all of that action was in favor of Ohio State. Once again starting off the scoring for the quarter, it was Fannell this time who gave the Buckeyes the early momentum as the second half began.
After an 11-minute scoring drought. Buckley scored on an assist from Jasinski to give the lead back to the Buckeyes and put the score at 8-7. The Buckley-Jasinski connection resulted in another goal for the home Buckeyes, as Buckley found the back of the net with just three seconds left to finish off a quarter that was dominated by Ohio State.
Just as they had in the first, second and third quarters, Ohio State found the net first in the fourth quarter, with Tre Leclaire scoring his 25th goal of the season as Jasinski recorded his third straight assist. Stanwick answered with his 17th goal of the season as his unassisted goal closed the deficit to 10-8 in favor of the Buckeyes.
Unsatisfied with his three straight assists, Jasinski scored the final three goals for Ohio State, recording his goal hat trick to coincide with his assist hat trick.
A goal by Kyle Marr sandwiched between Jasinski’s second and third goals eased the bleeding for a while, but Jasinski’s final goal sealed the game as Ohio State topped the Blue Jays 13-9.
The win puts OSU at 10-2 overall with a 1-1 record in the Big Ten, while the loss drops the Jays to 6-4 with a 1-1 record in the Big Ten. The Blue Jays will next be in action this Saturday, April 15, when they take on the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions at Homewood Field.
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