Buckeyes Open with Win Over Detroit
from press release
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State
men’s lacrosse team opened its 2012 campaign with an 11-6
victory over Detroit Thursday night in the Woody Hayes Athletic
Center. The Buckeyes led 3-1 after the first quarter and 8-3 at
halftime en route to the victory. Detroit scored the first three
goals of the second half to draw within two, but the Buckeyes shut
out the Titans the rest of the way and scored the game’s
final three goals for the victory.
Junior Logan Schuss led the Buckeyes with four goals and six
points, with freshman Jesse King scoring three goals and adding an
assist for four points. Senior Brock Sorensen had his first career
hat trick and junior Nick Liddil chipped in a career-best three
assists. Sophomore goalie Greg Dutton had nine saves and junior
Kevin Mack had a team-high seven groundballs in the victory.
The Buckeyes will be right back in action, heading to Macon, Ga.,
for a game vs. Mercer at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Ohio State led 3-1 after the opening quarter. King scored 3:20 into
the contest, assisted by Liddil, for the Buckeyes’ first goal
of 2012. At 7:54 Nick Diegel took an assist from Michael Italiano
and tallied his first goal as a Buckeye. Detroit got on the board
less than a minute later when Shayne Adams scored at 6:34. At 3:45
Schuss found King for a man-up goal and a two-goal Buckeye
advantage (3-1). Ohio State outshot Detroit, 14-6, in the
quarter.
The Buckeyes outscored Detroit, 5-2, in the second quarter to take
an 8-3 lead into halftime. The teams traded goals in the first five
minutes, with Sorensen tallying for Ohio State at 14:02 and Joel
Matthews scoring for the Titans at 10:39. Ohio State had four of
the last five goals in the quarter, including three in the final
2:35. At 6:49 sophomore Tyler Frederick found Schuss in front of
the net for a tally, followed by a Detroit man-up goal by Scott
Harris at 4:23. Liddil then set up back-to-back goals by Schuss at
2:35 and Sorensen (man-up) at 1:15. The final goal came from Schuss
with just one second remaining in the half. Shots were 14-9 in
favor of the Buckeyes in the stanza. Detroit goalie A.J. Levell had
four saves in both the first and second quarters, while Dutton had
two stops in each stanza.
Each team scored three goals in the second half, with Detroit
outscoring the Buckeyes 3-2 in the third quarter and the Buckeyes
posting the lone fourth-quarter tally. The Titans scored the first
three goals of the third quarter to draw within two (8-6). Harris
tallied at 13:43 and 9:00, sandwiched around a man-up score by
Matthews at 11:47. Ohio State regained its three-goal lead when
Schuss found King at 6:50 and Schuss then scored with three seconds
left in the quarter, with senior Mike Smail assisting on the tally.
King and Sorensen combined for the Buckeyes’ final goal, a
man-up tally at 7:59 of the fourth quarter with Sorensen completing
his hat trick. Ohio State outshot the Titans, 16-15, in the second
half, including Detroit outshooting Ohio State 8-7 in the third
quarter. Each goalie had five second-half saves, with Dutton
stopping four shots in the fourth quarter.
For the game, Ohio State outshot Detroit, 44-30. Dutton had nine
saves in the cage for the Buckeyes, with Detroit’s Levell
making 13 saves.
The teams combined for 19 penalties in the game. Ohio State was
4-for-10 on man-up chances and held Detroit to two goals on eight
opportunities.
Ohio State won the groundball battle, 44-24, led by Mack with
seven. Schuss and sophomore Shawn Kaplan each had five in the
contest. The Buckeyes caused 12 turnovers, with Mack and senior Joe
Bonanni each forcing three. Kaplan led the Buckeye faceoff unit to
a 14-6 night, winning 10 of the 14 faceoffs he took.
Postgame Notes
• Schuss now has 114 points, with 67 goals and 47 assists, in
his career, with at least one point in all 31 games. He is tied for
14th in program history for career points. His 16 shots vs. Detroit
tie for the fourth-most by a Buckeye in a single game. It was his
ninth game with three or more goals (fourth with more than three
tallies) and his second four-goal outing. He now has 10 career
games with five or more points.
• Liddil had a career high in assists and points. He entered
the game with one assist in his first 21 games at Ohio State.
• Diegel, who played the last two seasons at Central Michigan
in the CCLA, had his first goal as a Buckeye.
• Sorensen’s hat trick was the first of his career and
also marked a career high with three points.
• King was the only Buckeye freshman to start the game. Other
Buckeye newcomers to play in their first game for the Scarlet and
Gray were Reegan Comeault, Diegel, Rick Lewis and Luke Howard.
• Mack had a career-high seven groundballs and three caused
turnovers.
• The game was the second Division I contest of the 2012
season. Detroit and Delaware opened the year last Saturday.
• Ohio State is now 4-0 in season openers under head coach
Nick Myers. It was the seventh-consecutive year Ohio State opened
its slate at home.
Postgame Quotes
Nick Myers, Ohio State head coach
On tonight’s game
“We got the win, so that’s what we were looking for. We
didn’t get off to a strong start the third quarter though.
That’s not the brand of lacrosse we want to play.”
On starting the season
“I think we will learn from this. We certainly rely on our
defense with the amount of experience we have, but on the offensive
end guys are certainly capable.”
On moving on to Mercer
“We’ve been going hard for about a month now, and
we’re hungry to see a different color jersey. Now we just
need to focus on Mercer on Saturday to get that first road
win.”
Joe Bonanni, Ohio State senior defenseman
On Ohio State’s energy
“We came out tonight with a lot of energy, but we need to
clean up our play. Overall, it was a good effort. They hopped on us
with two or three goals early in the second half of the game, but
we rode it out and were able to come back to Buckeye
lacrosse.”
Logan Schuss, Ohio State junior attackman
On tonight’s game
“We got the win and that’s all that counts, but hats
off to them though they’re a great team. It was an overall
team effort.”
On Detroit’s comeback
“They really strapped down on defense and our offense got off
to a bad slow start (in the third). We have to play a full 60
minutes, but that should come as the season goes on. We need to
focus on taking it a quarter at a time, but we got the first game
jitters out.”
