OBERLIN, Ohio (April 17, 2024) – It was not easy as the Yeomen gave it a game-effort, but in the end, the Denison University men's lacrosse team won 16-9 on the road at Oberlin College on Wednesday night.

It was a matchup between two teams that have met up in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals in each of the last two years, and Oberlin played right with Denison in a contest that felt like a one-goal game for the majority of the action.

With at least 20 goals scored in every game during its five-game winning streak coming into the game, Denison would have to stay the course in this one and ultimately took advantage of a 19-second stretch late in the third quarter that saw three goals scored by the Big Red to take the victory.

Oberlin scored first and then Denison trailed for over seven minutes until finally getting on the scoreboard with a goal by Jack Hines assisted by Luke Fisher with 3:38 left in the first quarter.

Then tied 2-2 with 62 seconds left in the opening period, Oberlin took a timeout and looked to try and take another lead in the final minute of the first quarter, but a caused turnover and groundball by Brooks Crowley led to a goal rifled in by Tommy Quinson from 10-yards out to make it 3-2 Big Red heading into the second quarter.

Then after Colin MacLean won the opening faceoff of the second quarter, Nate Kay somehow corralled a tough pass from MacLean in traffic and found just enough space to get a shot off and score to give Denison its first two-goal lead of the game (4-2).

Quinson would finish with three-first half goals and Fisher scored his 50th goal of the season on a man-down possession by the Big Red in the final two minutes of the second quarter, making it a 6-4 Denison lead at the break.

Denison was outshot 14-9 in the first quarter as Andrew Albert had to make five saves, but the second quarter was 15-5 in favor of the Big Red. In addition, faceoffs were even (3-3) in the first quarter while Oberlin was 1-for-2 on man-up opportunities in the first quarter, but in the second quarter, Denison won 4-of-6 faceoffs and held the Yeomen to 0-for-2 on man-up opportunities.

It was a one-goal game again (7-6) until Fisher's second goal with 7:36 left in the third quarter, and that is where the score remained until the next four minutes when the wheels came off for Oberlin.

After a shot by Kay was saved by Oberlin's Joe Barocas, the rebound went right to Nick Vance, who deposited the ball into the back of the net with 3:47 left in the period.

The ensuing faceoff was won by Oberlin, but the Yeomen's faceoff man was intercepted trying to throw the ball back toward the goal, leading to an easy goal by Quinson who after picking off the pass, turned around to find an empty goal in front of him.

Then after Jack Sload picked up the groundball on the next draw control, Sload found Denison's faceoff man, Grant Larson, open in the middle for his second goal in as many games.

That made it three Big Red goals in just 19 seconds as Denison went up by a score of 11-6 and led 11-7 going into the fourth quarter.

Shots were an even 11-11 in the third quarter with both teams making three saves as it was just the three quick goals by Denison that made the difference.

Oberlin, however, would not go away without a fight and scored twice in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter to make it 11-9.

Denison finally had the answer as Quinson took it upon himself coming from behind the cage and scored to make it 12-9 with 7:50 left to play.

Fisher would score his third goal of the game with 5:47 left as Denison began to put this one to bed.

After taking in a groundball on the defensive end, Collin Murphy went end-to-end with his second goal of the season with 4:34 remaining, and then goal number six by Quinson with four minutes left made it 15-9.

Quinson would add one more goal to his total in the final three minutes after an impressive 20-yard pass from Fisher set him up.

Despite winning only 2-of-7 faceoffs in the final period, Denison held Oberlin to just three shot attempts to go along with seven turnovers.

Quinson has now scored 13 goals between his last two games against Oberlin after scoring six in Denison's 18-6 win in the NCAC semifinals last season. Quinson also led the Big Red with six groundballs and three caused turnovers in this matchup.

With five points (3 goals; 2 assists) on Wednesday, Fisher is now just four points away from tying Liam Rooney's all-time program record of 282 points.

With the win, Denison improves to 10-5 overall and 6-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference and remains tied with Ohio Wesleyan University (9-3, 6-0) for first place in the conference standings.

Next up, Denison will host its Senior Day against the College of Wooster (10-4, 4-1 NCAC) starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, before wrapping up the regular season the following Saturday (Apr. 27) at Ohio Wesleyan.