Ohio State lacrosse: Buckeyes fall to UMass 12-11 in OT

The Buckeyes lost another heart-breaker in overtime, this time to Massachusetts, 12-11. UMass' Nick Marino scored the game winner with seven seconds left in the first overtime period at the Moe's Southwest Grill Classic in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday night to give Buckeyes their second straight loss to begin the season.

For the second game in a row, the Buckeyes saw themselves down two goals with less than six minutes remaining before scoring twice and sending the game to overtime. The Minutemen did a great job on Jesse King, holding him to only one assist. Attackman Turner Evans led the Buckeye offense, totaling six points (1 G, 5 A), along with Reegan Comeault, Carter Brown and Adam Trombley who all registered hat tricks.

Ohio State out-shot the Minutemen 17-13, but trailed 5-4 at halftime. UMASS registered three, third quarter goals but Brown kept the Buckeyes in the game with three goals of his own as they found themselves down 8-7 heading into the fourth quarter. The Minutemen led 11-9 with six minutes left in the game before the Buckeyes scored back-to-back goals to send the game into overtime.

For the second game in a row, the Buckeyes got dominated in the faceoff X, losing 19-of-27 faceoffs. In two games this season, the Buckeyes are 13-of-51 (.255) on faceoffs, which puts massive pressure on the defense to get takeaways. Also, when the offense has an extra man opportunity (EMO), they are 0-9 in the past two games. Time of possession and scoring on man-up opportunities are major keys to winning and they have been the difference between being 2-0 instead of 0-2.

The Buckeyes return to Columbus for their home opener against Marquette this Saturday at noon inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.