ALLIANCE, Ohio – Despite trailing 13-10 heading into the fourth quarter, the Capital University men's lacrosse team out-scored Mount Union 6-0 in the final 15 minutes of play to secure their eighth straight win, via a scoreline of 16-13.
The win propels Capital to 8-2 overall and 3-0 in the OAC. Mount Union on the other hand falls to 3-7 overall and 0-3 in the conference.
Capital's momentum all afternoon was spearheaded by freshman
Freddy Noday's high efficiency day at the faceoff dot. Noday won 24 of his 30 battles on the day including all seven faceoffs in the fourth quarter comeback effort.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Comets had to endure their second straight Saturday with a delayed start time as weather forced a postponed start until 1:30 p.m. From there, Capital came out of the gates sluggishly, falling behind 8-6 by the halftime break.
After the intermission, Capital's offense continued to find the back of the net, but the Purple Raiders again out-scored Cap, scoring five goals to their four.
Heading to the fourth down by three at 13-10, Capital rattled off the final six goals of the game, thanks largely to
Charlie Howenstine. The freshman scored three times in the run and was joined on the scoreboard by
Jake Belt, Brendon Pelton and
Nathan Montgomery.
In the fourth quarter effort, Capital's attackmen and midfielders were a big reason for getting the Comets back into it as they forced Mount Union into five failed clears and four of those failures directly led to Capital goals.
THE NUMBERS
Jake Belt led the offense with five goals – a new career-high.
He was followed up in scoring by
Nathan Montgomery,
Brenden Pelton and
Charlie Howenstine who all cashed in hat-tricks.
Solo goals came from both
Jacob Poole and
Drew Bolen.
Capital only slung out four assists on the day – one each from Howenstine,
Dylan Comella,
Jack Kilgallon and Poole.
In defense,
Mason Spaulding picked up for his uncharacteristic scoreless game with a game-high and career-high four caused turnovers. He also added three ground balls.
Joining Spaulding in causing turnovers were
Charlie Howenstine (2),
Jacob Poole,
Jack Kilgallon,
Robert Smith and
Gino Nave.
In ground ball pick-ups,
Nathan Montgomery and
Charlie Howenstine led field players with six each.
Jacob Poole picked up five, while
Jake Belt added four.
Dylan Comella,
Austin Yanichko,
Mason Spaulding,
Jack Kilgallon, and
Gino Nave added three each.
Sam McInturf recorded 12 saves in the cage for Capital.
HAVE A DAY NODAY
Freddy Noday put together an insane performance at the faceoff X, winning 24 of his 30 match-ups. In the process, he scooped up 14 ground balls which marks a new single-game record for the Comets. The previous record of 13 was accomplished by Adam Thomas (2014), Tyler Faig (2017) and
Mikey Collins (2021). Despite many thinking his 24 faceoff wins was also a record, the mark was not even a career-high for Noday who tied the Comet single-game record with 25 wins earlier this season against Adrian.
THE OPPONENT
Goals - Logan Gebhart (5)
Assists - Logan Addonizio (4)
Points - Gebhart/Addonizio (5)
Ground Balls - Logan Hunderman (5)
Caused Turnovers - Gunderman/Aaron Czech (2)
Faceoff Wins - Alex Nicholas (5)
Saves - Gunderman (19)
UP NEXT
Capital will face a big upcoming week as they travel to Marietta College on Wednesday, April 5th at 7 p.m. before having a quick turnover around to host the high-powered John Carroll University on Friday, April 7th at 1 p.m.
