WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
GAMBIER, Ohio – Playing in its final non-conference contest before kicking off the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) schedule, the Kenyon College men’s lacrosse team took on Grove City this afternoon from The Field at Benson Bowl.
Despite a first-quarter hat-trick from David Chintala that tied the game at three, the Wolverines rattled off nine-straight goals to take control of the Owls and the game, eventually winning 16-7.
Chintala opened all scoring at 12:59 in the first for his 28th goal of the season, giving Kenyon an early lead. Grove City responded with three goals in three minutes to take a 3-1 advantage as the Wolverine’s leading scorer Matt Blythe scored a man-up goal at 8:27 to push the visitors ahead.
Within the next four minutes, Chintala scored twice more, one unassisted and the other from a Chase MacCartee feed, for his 29th and 30th goals of the season, the highest mark on the team. At 4:37 in the first quarter, the score was tied at three and Kenyon looked like it was gaining momentum.
However, in the final minutes of the first and well into the second quarter, Grove City would fire off nine straight goals in 17 minutes of play and take a 12-3 lead at 2:16 into the half. Gavin Gumucio got his eleventh goal of the season to stop the run, but to end the first, the Owls were down 12-4.
The Wolverines began the second half with two goals to expand the lead to 14-4, and although Jack McCarren, Rollins Heath, and Gumucio all found the net in the second half, it was not enough to overcome Grove City’s margin, falling 16-7 after 60 minutes.
For the game, the Owls outshot the Wolverines 43-42, but lost the ground ball margin 35-29 and the turnover margin 19-15. Adam Hall ended with 12 saves, while Danny Stone for Grove City had 18. At the faceoff dot, Thomas Nelson went 11-19 and Will Jordon went 4-7.
The loss drops Kenyon’s record to 6-3 on the season. The Owls will open NCAC play on Saturday, March 23, taking on the Denison University Big Red at 1:00 pm from Granville, Ohio.
