OTTAWA, Kan. – The (RV) Missouri Baptist University men's lacrosse team withstood multiple rallies from Ottawa University on Friday afternoon and walked away from OU's AdventHealth Field with a 12-10 victory.
After beginning the season 0 and 3 with a loss to No. 3 Columbia in the conference opener, the Spartans have now rattled off five consecutive wins and sit at 5-3 overall and 5-1 in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference. With Wednesday's triumph, the winning streak lives to see another day, and the Spartans are one step closer to securing a top-four seed for KCAC's postseason tournament, along with the right to host a quarterfinal.
Ian Olenski,
Alex Todd, and
Jaxon Haas supplied the Spartans' firepower in the afternoon affair as the trio combined for 10 of the 12 goals. Olenski led the way with a team-best six points – four goals and two assists – while pushing his season goal total to 19.
Despite MBU taking an early and commanding 5-0 lead in the opening quarter, the resilient Braves had an answer with four unanswered goals of their own. In addition to a pair of goals in the final minute of the first, OU's Robert Roseberry scored back-to-back to cut their deficit to just one.
In a game of runs, Missouri Baptist was the next to pile on consecutive goals adding five in a row with three from Olenski and two from Todd to make it a 10-4 ballgame with 8:38 left in the third. For the second time, though, Ottawa came storming back, scoring six of the following seven goals.
A defensive standstill ensued for most of the final period outside of a goal for each team. One particular Brave that the Spartans keyed in on all game was the KCAC's leading scorer Brandon DeMarco. While OU's sharpshooter reached his season average in both shots and shots on goal, the junior attackman well below his season average in scoring with a season-low one goal.
Hunter Filla picked up another win in the cage and collected 18 saves on the day.
As a team, the Spartans were out-shot, 46-37, had more turnovers (27-17), were 12 of 25 in faceoffs, and came up empty with four extra-man opportunities. Nonetheless, MoBap still locked up a key road win.
Missouri Baptist remains in Kansas on Saturday for its second game in as many days. The Spartans will pay a visit to No. 7-ranked Benedictine College (Kan.) with a start time of 2 p.m.
