The Oberlin men’s lacrosse team traveled to Delaware, Ohio last Wednesday to compete against the Ohio Wesleyan University Bishops, ranked 19th in the nation. The Yeomen entered the game outnumbered — Ohio Wesleyan suited-up over 50 players compared to the Yeomen’s 19 — but put forth a valiant effort against a Bishops team that had recently knocked off Washington College, the sixth ranked team in the nation.

Ohio Wesleyan controlled the ball for most of the first quarter, running up the score and ending the quarter with a 7-0 lead.

Head Coach Kevin Walz was able to rally his troops, and Oberlin played its best quarter of the game (and perhaps their best of the season). Junior Vance Murphy cleared the ball from midfield and thundered past helpless Ohio Wesleyan defenders to score the first goal of his career.

Murphy’s goal jump-started an offensive surge from the Yeomen. One minute and 24 seconds later, sophomore attackman Ian Dias scrapped for a groundball in front of the cage and put one home from a few feet out. Junior Will Jaffee added another goal for the Yeomen when he ripped one into the back of the net from 10 feet out.

Later in the quarter, Ohio Wesleyan was attempting to clear the ball when sophomore long pole midfielder Mat Markman intercepted the pass and sent the ball the other way. Markman’s pass went towards a mass of people, and sophomore Bryan Harfenist scooped up the ground ball and separated himself from the Ohio Wesleyan defenders, leading to a one-on-one with the goalie. Harfenist capitalized on the opportunity and put it in the back of the net. Markman’s interception that helped the Yeomen score their fourth goal was a team effort. “Jared Pickard let me know that the play was coming,” said Markman. “It was the perfect representation of proper team communication that we work on in practice. Jared alerted me of the man behind me and that started the whole play.”

The Yeomen went into the half down five goals, trailing 9-4. “That goal gave us a lot of confidence going into the half,” said Markman.

After being outscored 4-2 in the second quarter by the Yeomen, Ohio Wesleyan ran away with the game in the third quarter, both literally and figuratively. The Yeomen lost sophomore midfielder Ben Purdon to a hamstring injury in the second quarter, leaving Oberlin with 18 functioning players. In the meantime the Bishops substituted waves after waves of players and outscored the Yeomen 8-0 in the third quarter.

Down 17-4 entering the final quarter, the Yeomen were not prepared to go down without a fight. Sophomore midfielder Ian Mark unleashed a rocket from 15 feet out that was too fast and too furious for the Ohio Wesleyan goaltender to stop.

Later in the quarter Jaffee scored on a man-up play after the Yeomen perfectly executed one of their set offensive plays. That proved to be the final goal for the Yeomen, ending the game with a 20-6 loss.

Throughout the game, the Yeomen’s junior goaltender Pickard stuffed Ohio Wesleyan players left and right in an amazing performance. Pickard faced a barrage of over 50 shots and held the Ohio Wesleyan offense, which featured two All-Americans, to 19 goals.

The Yeomen will look towards their next game on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in Springfield, Ohio, where they will battle Wittenberg.