Men’s lacrosse: No. 19 Ohio State continues its winning ways against Jacksonville

Ray Bruster
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 15:16:20 +0000
Lacrosse, Sports, Buckeyes, colin chell, Eric Fannell, Johnny Pearson, Lukas buckley, Nick Myers, Ohio State men's lacrosse, osu

Ohio State redshirt freshman attackman Lukas Buckley penetrates the defense in the offensive zone against Massachusetts on Feb. 18 at Ohio Stadium. Credit: Jacob Myers | Assistant Sports Editor

The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team dismantled the Jacksonville Dolphins 16-8 on Saturday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. OSU junior attackman Colin Chell led the game with four goals and senior attackman Eric Fannell added three goals and three assists.

The offensive prowess, however, didn’t come until the second quarter. Only one goal was scored in the first frame and Jacksonville scored the first in the second as well, leading 2-0. Then, OSU responded with seven unanswered goals, starting with one from Fannell and two from Chell.

OSU led 7-2 at the half.

“We started a little slow on offense and executing our shots,” Chell said. “But once we got the ball moving and with the offense generating, Fannell was able to find me.”

OSU coach Nick Myers said he was glad to see a good response from the team after being down 2-0. He said he believes the Buckeyes learned a great deal from this game.

“I think anytime when your team goes down, you want to see how they respond to that,” Myers said.

Jacksonville junior attackman Shawn Ewert scored early in the third period, but OSU’s offense exploded once again. Chell began the barrage of goals with Fannell adding two less than a minute later.

The second and third quarters were the difference for the Buckeyes, outscoring the Dolphins 13-2. However, the fourth quarter was a bit stagnant for OSU, as the Buckeyes were outscored 5-3.

Coach Myers said he was most excited about the second and third quarter, but the Buckeyes need to make a better run for the entire game.

“I didn’t like the way we finished either quite frankly. The second and third quarter was outstanding,” Myers said. ?“(We) had kind of a bit of a let off in the fourth, but for us, we’re still working on us. We’re still trying to put together that 60-minute effort that we can feel really good about,” Coach Myers said.

OSU junior midfielder Trevor Hodgins, freshman attackman Nick Musci and freshman midfielder Colin O’Hare all scored for their first time this season in the fourth period.

Jacksonville’s Raaham Hurcum scored twice in the fourth quarter, including one in the final moments of the game.

While Myers said it wasn’t the most complete game his team had played all year, the momentum continues to build for an OSU team hungry for success.

“The guys are just gelling this year,” Fannell said. “We have a lot of returning seniors in the midfield. The defense has just stepped up incredibly.”

The No. 19 Buckeyes are on road next week against No. 16 Marquette.

“It’s (game) No. 4 in the season and we’re excited about that,” Myers said. “Not a tremendous start out of the gates, but the guys showed pose. Now we have an incredible test to go on the road against Marquette.”