Owls fade in second half for season’s first loss

CARLISLE, Pa. – The #20 Kenyon College men’s lacrosse team took on its highest-ranked opponent of the season on Wednesday afternoon, traveling to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to battle with the #5 Dickinson College Red Devils in a matchup of two undefeated teams.

After the Owls took a lead going into halftime, the offense fizzled out and allowed the Red Devils to fire off seven straight goals to capture a 13-8 win, handing Kenyon its first loss of the season. 

Kenyon (5-1) opened the scoring at 12:27, when he found the back of the net for his team-leading 21st goal. Dickinson (4-0) responded less than an minute later to tie the game, but another goal from Chintala and Tanner Lewis restored the Owls’ lead 3-1 with 8:26 remaining in the opening quarter. 

The Red Devils would score once more to cut the lead to one, but Lucas Flynn scored off of a Chase MacCartee dish to end the first up 4-2.

Three out of the next four goals were scored by Dickinson, with Mike Kapral scoring the lone goal for Kenyon to set the score tied at five with half the quarter gone. To close the second, Flynn and Chintala tallied one goal each and the Owls found themselves up 7-5 after 30 minutes of play. 

Out of halftime, the Red Devils completely took over the game, capitalzing on Owls’ turnovers while winning the ground ball and faceoff battles. Through the third quarter and into late in the fourth, Dickinson scored seven straight goals and held Kenyon scoreless. With five minutes to play, the Owls were down 12-7. 

Chintala scored again late in the quarter to try and start a run, but Dickinson extinguished any comeback hopes by matching the goal and melting away the clock to cement the 13-8 final score. 

On the day, the Owls were bested on the ground 41-29 and allowed the Red Devils to capitalize on 23 turnovers, 19 caused by the home team. After earning the North Coast Athletic Conference’s Athlete of the Week honor, Thomas Nelson had an uncharacteristic performance, going 13-of-25 from the faceoff X. Adam Hall’s 14 saves kept Kenyon in the game, but it was not enough to overcome the nation’s fifth-ranked team. 

The loss is Kenyon’s first of the season, dropping the team’s record to 5-1. The Owls have another top-25 matchup on Saturday as the team will take on #22 Franklin and Marshall College at 12:00 pm from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Casey Coughlin Athletics Communications Assistant coughlin2@kenyon.edu