From the beginning of the year, the men’s lacrosse team had their final game of the season against the Kenyon College Lords marked as a much-anticipated battle.

Several hardcore fans made the two hour trip to add their pot-banging skills to the Yeomen and support the team in a hostile environment. The diehard Yeomen fans were turned away by the Kenyon security guards who told them that their pitchfork qualified as a “lethal weapon,” and they would not be allowed into the stadium until they disposed of their authentic Yeomen prop.

For the first 11 minutes of the game, both teams controlled the ball with several shots on goal for both sides, but the Lords put in three unanswered goals against the Yeomen’s man-to-man defense.

The Yeomen switched to a zone defense and their three close defensemen, senior Dan Cole, first-year Timmons Erickson and sophomore Max Braun combined with sophomore long-pole midfielders Jono Sanders and Mat Markman to halt the Kenyon. The Yeomen stormed back as they scored five goals in the next 2:33.

First-year Chris Sanders started off the barrage of goals for the Yeomen by shooting from several feet out to the Kenyon goaltender’s right. Within the next 16 seconds, sophomore Bryan Harfenist and junior Will Jaffee scored unassisted goals and left the Kenyon defenders bewildered.

A slashing penalty on a Kenyon attackman allowed Oberlin to get their man-up unit onto the field, which is the second most successful unit in the conference, behind nationally ranked Ohio Wesleyan. Sophomore Ian Mark ripped a gnarly shot between several defenders from the top of the box to tie the game up at 4-4.

Moments later Jaffee scored his second goal of the game to give the Yeomen their first lead of the afternoon, 5-4. Unfortunately for Oberlin, Kenyon scored three goals during the second quarter while keeping the Yeomen scoreless.

“I think [our problem] was clearing, I wouldn’t put all of the blame on any single thing,” said Harfenist. “It was just not working together. We get scared when we get ahead against good teams.”

In the second half, the Yeomen used their zone defense to slow down the Kenyon offense, but failure effectively to clear the ball kept them playing defense for an extended amount of time. “Once we took the lead we kind of slowed down,” said Sanders.

Fatigue set in for the 19 Yeomen as Kenyon, which dressed over 30 players, began to take advantage of Oberlin’s shortage of players. Many of Kenyon’s attackmen were undersized, but, as Sanders said, they made up for it with their speed. “They were a really fast team, with small guys. Towards the end of the game ever one of their attackmen were faster than us. They were tiny and quick, they fit in-between your arms and your chest, they snuck in our armpits.”

The Yeomen were outscored in the second half 8-3 and lost the game 15-8. Despite the loss, first-year Drew Zambelli made 12 saves in his second career start. Jaffee and Mark also combined to win 65 percent of the game’s face-offs.

No official games remain on the Yeomen’s schedule, but on May 14 the team will compete against Oberlin alumni at 2 p.m.