After shaking off a slow start, the Wilmington College men's lacrosse dominated the second half en route to beating Calvin, 18-5, Tuesday in non-conference action at Townsend Field in Williams Stadium.
"We keep starting slow, and it's been every game," said Wilmington head coach Domenic Marzano. "We keep putting ourselves in a hole. It just takes us a little bit to get into the flow of our game. A couple halftime adjustments, but it was really the guys getting frustrated in how they played in the first half. You could tell the second half, the third quarter, they were on mission. We have to figure out a way to start quickly."
Wilmington outscored the Knights 11-2 over the final 30 minutes, including a 6-0 blanking in the third quarter. The WC defense limited Calvin to just one shot in the 15-minute third period, while forcing seven turnovers.
Not only were the Fightin' Quakers locking down Calvin defensively, they showed signs of faith in their teammates. Wilmington assisted on five of its six third-quarter goals, and had 12 assists in the 18 goals scored.
"Today was a good sign that we trusted each other more," said Marzano. "We started getting into the right spaces, and our off ball movement was what we keyed on from last game to this game. The guys started being patient and unselfish."
Junior Alexander Gossard (Galloway, OH/Hilliard Bradley) was the main recipient of sharing compadres as he scored a team-high five goals, all of which were assisted on. Freshman Jhordan Lang (Sunbury, OH/Big Walnut) tallied three assisted goals.
Freshman Devon Maki (Pickerington, OH/Central) continues his torrid start to his career, scoring three more goals with three assists. Maki has scored at least three goals in all five Wilmington goals this season. Junior Jalen Jackson (Hilliard, OH/Bradley) tallied two goals with three assists, and now has scored in all five games and assisted in four of the five. Sophomore Chris Hein (McKinney, TX/McKinney) also distributed three assists for the Fightin' Quakers.
Sophomore Nick Perry (Carmel, IN/Carmel) scored twice with two assists, while sophomore Andrew Esselstein (Dayton, OH/Archbishop Alter) and junior Evan Osborne (Middletown, OH/Lebanon) each scored a goal.
Sophomore Paul Koerbel (Maineville, OH/Kings) improved to 3-2, allowing three goals with seven saves.
Wilmington (3-2) returns to action 1 p.m. Saturday in non-conference action, hosting Franciscan.