COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 17/18 Ohio State men's lacrosse team jumped out to a 13-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 20-4 victory over Bellarmine in a Great Western Lacrosse League game in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium Wednesday night. The Buckeyes, now 6-3 this year and 2-0 in the GWLL, received goals from 11 players in the win. Bellarmine falls to 6-4 on the year and is 0-2 in the league.

"I'm impressed with the total team effort our guys put forth in this important win tonight," Joe Breschi, Ohio State head coach, said. "It gave a lot of players a chance to play and was good experience for our young guys. It was a good performance on a short week, as we now get ready for Air Force Sunday."

Junior Joel Dalgarno, the reigning GWLL Player of the Week, had a game-high four goals and tied teammate Kevin Buchanan for the team lead with six points each vs. the Knights. Buchanan had a team-best five assists in the game, with junior Jeff Ryan recording four points on a hat trick and an assist. Junior Peet Poillon had a hat trick, and senior Mat Ballay and sophomore Mario Ventiquattro each scored twice. Junior Nick Carr led the team with a career-best nine groundballs. The Buckeye defense held the Knights to just 17 shots in the game, including five in the first half.

The Buckeyes scored four goals in the first quarter while outshooting the Knights, 21-2. Dalgarno tallied at 11:43 and set up Buchanan for a man-up goal at 10:31. After a goal by Poillon at 6:20, Dalgarno found Ryan to extend the lead to 4-0 at 4:23.

The Buckeyes scored nine times on 13 shots in the second quarter to lead 13-0 at halftime. Sophomore James Green set up Dalgarno at 13:43 and Poillon scored unassisted at 12:27. Buchanan assisted on the next two and three of the next four goals, finding Ryan at 9:03, senior Ricky Pages at 5:41 and Corey Bentine at 4:21. Green scored a goal of his own at 5:41. Ryan set up sophomore Andrew Stimmel for a goal at 3:13 before Dalgarno scored 1:01 later. Ventiquattro closed out the scoring with a goal, assisted by junior Doug Ruhnke, with 10 seconds left in the quarter.

The Buckeyes scored the first three goals to open the second half and outscored BU in the quarter, 4-2, with three man-up goals. Buchanan found Ventiquattro for a man-up score at 13:59 before sophomore Ryan Lowe assisted on Poillon's third goal of the game at 12:29. Dalgarno and Ryan (from Buchanan) scored EMO goals at 9:12 and 2:17, respectively, surrounding Bellarmine's first goal of the game, from John Kirk at 4:33. BU's Mike Rosenbergh closed the quarter with a goal with 59 seconds left on the clock.

Ohio State opened the fourth quarter on a three-goal run, with two goals from Ballay (man-up from Brian Lalley at 14:07 and unassisted at 10:04) and a score by Mike Pires at 10:52. The Knights scored the final two goals of the game, as Shane Andersen set up Derek Hopcroft at 7:24 and Chaze Williams at 3:29.

For the second-consecutive game, three goalies saw time in the cage for the Buckeyes. Senior Stefan Schroder started and played the first half, shutting out the Knights while making one save. Sophomore Brandon Freeman played 25:48 and allowed three goals, making five stops. Senior Bill Curry played the final 4:12, making one save and allowing one goal.

Ohio State outshot the Knights, 47-17. The Buckeyes had 42 groundballs, with Bellarmine scooping up 25. Each team won 13 faceoffs. Ohio State converted 5-of-8 man-up chances in the game and stopped the Knights on their three opportunities.

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2008-04-03