Box Score ADRIAN, Mich. – The Adrian College men's lacrosse had a rough afternoon against a tough Wittenberg University defense as the Bulldogs fell 16-9. With the loss, Adrian drops to 4-2 on the season.
Wittenberg scored the first goal of the game at 12:38 but Adrian answered back with senior Josh Maluta (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) scoring his eighth of the season. The Tigers closed out the first period scoring two unanswered goals as the Tigers held Adrian to only seven shots over the first period as Adrian trailed 5-2 after the first.
The second quarter started just like the first with the Tigers scoring the first goal with Adrian answering back just 26 seconds later as junior Ryan Werhane (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) scoring his first goal of the season. That would be the closest the Bulldogs would get as Wittenberg scored three unanswered goals, including two on man-up opportunities. Adrian scored two of the next three goals but trailed 10-5 at halftime.
Wittenberg came out in the second half controlling the ball and not allowing the Adrian offense to get many opportunities. The Bulldogs managed 10 shots on the period, but only freshman Drake Dailey-Chwalibog (White Lake, Mich./St. Mary's) was able to find the back of the net with 2:42 left in the quarter.
Adrian outshot the Tigers in the final period 10-9, but the Wittenberg lead was too much to overcome. The Bulldogs tallied three goals in the final period, including two with under 30 second left in the game. Junior David Monroe (Ann Arbor, Mich./Huron) scored his team-leading 15th goal of the season with 29 second left.
Monroe led the Bulldogs with two goals. Fellow juniors Mitch Barnard (Springwater Township, Ont./Eastview Secondary School) and Tyler Tanguay (Port Colborne, Ont./Lakeshore Catholic) along with senior Jeff Ivey (Orangeville, Ont./Orangeville Secondary) each added in a goal and an assist. In all, eight different Bulldogs scored on the day. Barnard also tied for a game-high seven groundballs and two caused turnovers.
The Tigers were led by Brady Christensen who had five goals and Matt Lord who scored four.
In goal for Adrian, freshman Matthew Neal (Shelby Twp., Mich./De La Salle) made 11 saves while tying a game-high with seven groundballs.
Adrian was outshot for only the second time all season as the Tigers had a 49-to-33 shot advantage, which was the most shot attempts the Bulldogs have allowed all season. The biggest flaw for Adrian was that they were called for nine penalties for a total of seven minutes while Wittenberg was only flagged five times for four minutes. The Tigers were 3-for-8 on their man-up opportunities while Adrian was 1-for-5. Wittenberg was a perfect 18-for-18 in clears while the Bulldogs were 11-for-15.
Adrian did all they could to stop the Tigers offense as the Bulldogs had a 16-to-12 advantage in faceoffs won and 34-to-30 lead in groundballs recovered.
Adrian will look to rebound quickly as they travel to MLC opponent Albion on March 30 for a 4:00 pm game.
