No. 14 Ohio State lacrosse falls, 7-6, in overtime to Towson

The No. 14 Ohio State men’s lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaker in overtime to Towson Saturday, falling 7-6 in their third overtime matchup in their last four games.

The game was a rematch of last year’s Final Four match in the NCAA Tournament, when the No.3-seeded Buckeyes emerged victorious to move on to the finals against Maryland.

For the second-straight game, the Buckeyes fell down early as Towson went up 3-0 in the first quarter. It took more than 13 minutes of play for Ohio State to finally begin chipping away at the Tigers’ lead. Junior attackman Jack Jasinski finally scored an unassisted goal to close the first quarter with the Buckeyes down 3-1.

Senior midfielder John Kelly scored 10 minutes into the second quarter to spark the Ohio State attack. Senior attackman Colin Chell then took advantage of a man-up opportunity, scoring on an assist from freshman midfielder Jackson Reid to tie things at three-all. Then, with 33 seconds left in the half, sophomore midfielder Tre Leclaire found the back of the net to give the Buckeyes their first lead of the game heading into the break.

Junior attackman Gale Thorpe scored the lone goal of the third quarter, putting the Buckeyes up two with 15 minutes to play. Unfortunately for Ohio State, Towson finally found their attack again, scoring two goals in 15 seconds early in the quarter after going scoreless for more than two quarters. With the game tied at five-all, Jasinski connected on his second goal of the game to put the Buckeyes up one with 3:31 remaining, but a penalty on Ohio State gave the Tigers a man-up opportunity which they converted to tie things up once again and send the teams to overtime.

Ohio State won the opening faceoff of the four-minute overtime period, but was not able to convert after a more than two-minute possession. A turnover gave the ball back to Towson, and a goal by the Tigers with just seven seconds left sealed the win for the opposition.

Jasinski’s two goals led the Buckeyes in scoring, with five players scoring in all. Senior goalie Matthew Smidt had just three saves on the day, while Towson managed 16. Overall shots were 22-10 in favor of Ohio State, and the Buckeyes had 25 ground balls to Towson’s 20 on the day. The Buckeyes also held an advantage on faceoffs, going 11-for-17 on the afternoon.

Next up, Ohio State heads to Denver to face No. 4 Denver in their toughest test of the year thus far.