April 19, 2008

by Jeff Svoboda, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online

COLUMBUS, Ohio - In front of a record crowd providing a festive atmosphere in Ohio Stadium, the Ohio State men's lacrosse team did its best impression of the Buckeye football team in its home.

The 15th-ranked Buckeyes wasted little time entertaining the NCAA regular-season record gathering of 29,601 assembled before the football team's annual spring scrimmage. Joel Dalgarno scored 10 seconds into the game, and Ohio State dominated early play on the way to a 20-13 win over No. 19 Denver to capture a critical Great Western Lacrosse League contest.

Dalgarno did not stop there. He netted nine goals, the most by a Buckeye since 1967, and just three short of the school's single-game record. Leading scorer Kevin Buchanan pushed his season total to 35 with six goals in the blowout victory.

Ohio State moved to 9-3 overall and overtook sole possession of first place in the GWLL with a 4-0 record. Denver dropped to 9-5 and 4-1 in the league.

"It's definitely a good day to do it, but I credit my teammates," Dalgarno said. "Our team played really well today. The coaches gave us a great scout, and we found a way to put the ball in the back of the net."

Jamie Lincoln led Denver with three goals.

About 10,000 fans crowded the venerable Horseshoe at the start, and the crowd swelled to 29,601 by the end. Though the goal of topping the national attendance record of more than 52,000 set at the 2007 NCAA semifinals in Baltimore was not met, Ohio State now holds the NCAA regular-season and on-campus records.

That crowd buoyed Ohio State to a strong start out of the gates. The Buckeyes took the opening draw, and Dalgarno sliced through the defense to score into the upper right corner of the cage past Pioneers goalie Austin Konkel. After Denver tied the score on a nifty tally by Ilija Gajic, Ohio State netted six straight goals, the last of which was scored by Dalgarno with a man advantage 2:55 into the second quarter.

"I think it was the atmosphere, no doubt about it," Ohio State head coach Joe Breschi said when asked what pushed his team to the fast start. "Our guys were excited to play. They really got after it early."

Ohio State converted three extra-man chances in the first half and pushed its lead to 13-3 by halftime. A defining sequence came for Denver midway through the second quarter, when Dalgarno scored goals 19 seconds apart. As he scored the first with 5:26 left, he drew an illegal body check from Joey Murray that gave Ohio State another extra-man opportunity. Dalgarno converted from the right side to make it 10-2.

Denver seemed discombobulated early on in the mammoth edifice, especially on offense against a Buckeyes defense that ranks ninth in the country and allows just 7.27 goals per game. The Pioneers offensive sets weren't sharp and ended mostly in turnovers.

Denver head coach Jamie Munro was left unsure of exactly why his team stumbled out of the gates.

"It was a combination of factors," he said. "They played really well. For whatever reason, we just weren't as quick defensively as I think we can be and as I think we were in the second half."

The third quarter belonged to Denver. The Pioneers scored four straight goals, two by Cliff Smith, to cut Ohio State's lead to 15-9, but the Buckeyes responded with 13 seconds left in the third on another Dalgarno goal. The closest Denver would get was when Lincoln scored with 2:55 left in the game to make it 18-13.

"We played pretty good in the second half," Munro said.

The crowd increased as the game went on, topping out just shy of 30,000, as the threatened rain did not materialize. The scarlet-and-gray-clad diehards who were there for the start of the contest were pleased by Ohio State's early dominance, and the physical nature of the sport was driven home to some newcomers early in the second when Buckeye Keith Lovett leveled Brett Koll with a legal body check while going after a ground ball in midfield.

"When you have 30,000 people cheering on a lacrosse game and you're able to introduce all these football fans to the game, you couldn't ask for a better atmosphere," Breschi said.

Even more fans would have been in attendance had the threat of rain not hovered over the proceedings. Last year's spring football game on a perfect day saw a crowd of more than 75,000 fill the stadium that draws as many as 105,000 in attendance on fall Saturdays.

The Buckeyes men's lacrosse team, meanwhile, typically plays in front of crowds topping out in the thousands in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Dalgarno said that hearing the crowd erupt after each of Ohio State's tallies was odd.

"It was absolutely amazing," he said. "It was really surreal. I feel awestruck about it."

On the other side, Munro would not blame the unusual conditions for his team's troubles.

"I don't think it had anything to do with it," he said. "The atmosphere was great. It was awesome."