The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team secured a 13-9 win over Butler this weekend, and hope to secure another as it plays host to Robert Morris on Friday.
“Anytime you win it builds confidence and these guys needed that,” coach Joe Breschi said. “Going on the road and beating a good Butler team is the confidence boost we needed and hopefully, it will spark a run at a conference championship.”
The Buckeyes’ (3-5, 1-0 Great Western Lacrosse League) win over Butler (4-4, 0-2 GWLL) ended a two-game losing streak.
“We got off to a good start and you never want to start conference play with a loss,” junior attacker Ben Wolff said. “We have been taking it one game at a time, and we came out and got the victory.”
This was the Buckeyes’ first league win on the journey to capturing their third consecutive conference championship.
“The first thing for us is to take one conference game at a time,” Breschi said. “Since we won our first game, we are still alive for a conference championship and a NCAA tournament bid, and those are our two goals.”
The Buckeyes had several players contributing offensively, the game holding the second highest scoring effort of the season. Leading the way was senior attacker Kyle Olson with a team high of three goals, while junior attacker Craig Nolan and Wolff each had two. Senior midfielder Tom Randisi, sophomore midfielder Eric O’Brien, junior midfielder Josh Wittenberg, sophomore attacker Bryan Keane, sophomore attacker John DeCanio and junior attacker Justin Doran all had one.
While the Buckeyes struggled defensively in the final quarter, they still had one of their best defensive performances of the season.
Olson, along with redshirt freshman goaltender Mike Rimmer played well, and in his first career start sophomore defender Tim Pataki had a good performance anchoring the defense, Breschi said.
The Buckeyes are trying to produce their first winning streak of the year in hopes of keeping their momentum going for a potential conference title.
“We just need to come out and play with the same enthusiasm and intensity as last week against Butler, and get a win steak going,” Wolff said.
OSU will have the luxury of playing on their home field for the first time in three weeks Friday as they take on Robert Morris at the North Turf Field in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
“We are real excited to be playing at home this week,” Rimmer said. “We have great fans that come out and support us, and it is better playing when you are not coming off a long bus ride.”
The Buckeyes are not letting up this week in practice, using a lot of scrimmage situations to help maintain the same level of intensity to beat Robert Morris, Rimmer said.
“We have to make sure we clear the ball, keep attacking, push transition and just have to be solid on both sides of the ball,” Rimmer said.
Breschi said the Buckeyes must play well this Friday in preparation for next weekend when they play two league games against Denver and Air Force while in Colorado.
“We just need to play smart and play as a team,” Breschi said. ” We need to play aggressive style defense and continue to build confidence on offense by putting points on the board.”
