WILMINGTON, Ohio - Zac Chutcha's goal just over a minute into overtime lifted the Wilmington College men's lacrosse team to a 15-14 victory over Adrian College in the home-opener for the Fightin' Quakers on Saturday afternoon.
The Fightin' Quakers scored the first four goals of the game including hat trick for Jhordan Lang in the first eight minutes. The Bulldogs battled back in the final two minutes of the quarter as Brayden Adrian cut Adrian's deficit to two.
Wilmington opened the second quarter with goals from three different individuals as Zac Chutca, Andrew Miller and Jadon Flannery all scored in the first six minutes. Similar to the first quarter, Adrian ended the half with two goals and went to the lock room trailing 7-4 at halftime.
The Bulldogs used that momentum they built at the end of the first half to open the second as the visitors netted four consecutive goals to tie the game 7-7. Goals from Andrew Miller and Lang gave Wilmington the lead once again, but two goals from Adrian in the final 45 seconds from Fernando Rodriguez and Brayden Adrian left the hosts trailing 10-9 after three quarters.
Wilmington opened the fourth quarter scoring three straight goals by three individuals – Eric Wathen, Chucta and Diment – to regain a 12-10 edge. Adrian responded with three goals of its own to hold a brief 13-12 edge, but Michael Turner found Miller to tie the game 13-13 with 6:41 remaining.
Diment scored unassisted with 6:35 to play break a 13-13 deadlock, but Brayden Adrian successfully broke a clear and tied the game with 1:38 to play.
In overtime, Diment won the face-off, setting up the Quakers for the win. Chutca circled around the back of the net and fired a shot past Bulldog goalkeeper Peter Dugan for the game-winning goal.
"Tanner [Diment] has done a great job for us on face-offs this season, and tonight was no exception," Head Men's Lacrosse Coach Jeff Arneson said. "I was confident we were going to pull that out in overtime."
Wilmington won 23-of-31 face-offs as well as grabbing 41 ground balls to Adrian's 22. Both teams made over 15 clears and failed just four.
Individually, Lang finished with four goals and three assists on nine shots. Miller added three goals while Diment had two. Brayden Adrian had six goals for the Bulldogs in defeat.
Wilmington (2-3) travels to Mount St. Joseph University for a 7 p.m. contest on Tuesday.
