It took the Ohio State men’s lacrosse team a while to get going, but once it did, it never looked back.
The Buckeyes beat the Detroit Titans, 14-8, in Saturday’s season opener at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Following the trend that started during preseason play, OSU went into an offensive hibernation for about 10 minutes during the first period and allowed Detroit to take a 3-1 lead.
“We kind of let up a bit on the offensive end,” said senior attacker and co-captain Logan Schuss. “We didn’t make some of the opportunities we had, but overall we got into our offense and that’s what coach wanted.”
The Buckeyes trailed 3-2 at the end of the first period but managed to come back during the second period, outscoring Detroit, 4-3.
Heading into the locker room at halftime tied 6-6, OSU coach Nick Myers said he knew he had to say something to get his team going against a talented Detroit team.
“I told them to take a deep breath. It’s 30 minutes left, it’s 0-0,” Myers said. “It’s not the first half that we intended to play, so let’s go out there and play the second half the way we know we can.”
The Buckeyes kept up their second period pace during the third and fourth periods, out-scoring Detroit 8-2 en route to the victory.
OSU improved its all-time record against Detroit to 5-0, all under Myers. OSU also remains undefeated at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center with the win, with 11 wins and no losses all-time.
Schuss had a career day, tying a career high with seven goals and setting a new career high of 10 points in one game. Myers, though, wasn’t surprised.
“His job is to score goals. I know Logan would like to have two or three more goals to be honest with you,” Myers said. “If we are going to get him scoring opportunities, he’s going to take care of them. He’s done that for four years for us, it’s a good start for him and we’re going to build on it.”
Freshman attacker Tyler Pfister, who scored two goals in his regular season debut for the Buckeyes, said he was encouraged by the teamwork showed during the match.
“I think sometimes it’s just us being ourselves. I think we showed today that we can play cohesively. We know our strengths and we can play to them,” Pfister said.
OSU is set to travel to Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday to take on Jacksonville University at 3:15 p.m. in the Moe’s Southwest Grill Classic.