By Tim Glon
Freshman Steven Slagle scored two goals and dished out six assists to lead the Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team to a dominating 19-4 victory over Franciscan in ONU's inaugural varsity contest on Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson Stadium.
The Polar Bears (1-0) also got four goals and two assists from freshman Max Weese.
The Barons (0-1) got two goals from Dan McCartney in their season opener.
Freshman Peter Hardt scored the first two goals in Ohio Northern history, finding the back of the net at the 12:10 and 10:57 marks of the first period. Fittingly, the first goal was assisted by Weese and the second goal by Slagle.
Northern dominated from the outset, leading 4-0 after the first quarter and 7-0 at halftime. ONU put the game away with a 7-goal third period and led 14-3 entering the final stanza.
"I am very proud of the way our young men played today," ONU head coach Nat St. Laurent said. "We played hard and showed resolve. It was a great environment. Our fans were awesome.
"I am just so excited that these guys took a leap of faith to come to Ohio Northern, a place where we did not even have a program. All of the hard work they put into getting to this game and they made history today. "
Hardt, freshman Noah St. Croix and freshman Lucas Blaszyk each had three goals for ONU.
Slagle put ONU up 3-0 at the 2:32 mark of the first period and St. Croix scored off an assist from Slagle just 29 seconds before the end of the period.
In all, nine different Polar Bears scored goals in the game.
Freshman Mitch Groves made it 5-0 ONU with a goal just 1:06 into the second period and Hardt and Weese scored again in the period as ONU led 7-0 at the half.
Ohio Northern out-shot Franciscan 53-28 and forced 33 Baron turnovers.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday with a 5 pm contest at Randollph (Va.)
