LATROBE, Pa. (Feb. 15)- The Saint Vincent men's lacrosse team fell to Ohio Northern University 16-8 in their home opener at a snowy and rainy UPMC Field on Saturday afternoon.

After the game begin in a 30-minute delay, the Bearcats (0-1) and Polar Bears (1-0) finally got going. Ohio Northern came out strong, quickly opening up to a 7-2 lead after one quarter. After a 4-3 second quarter put the Bearcats down by six (11-5) at the half, the Polar Bears outscored SVC 5-3 in the second half to earn the 16-8 victory.

Justin Wodarek led the way for Saint Vincent with three total points, scoring two goals, while dishing out an assist. Freshman, Neal Ritchie had a good day in his Saint Vincent debut, adding two goals for the Bearcats, while Liam McCall scored two goals as well. Reed Hunt, Carter Haid, and Eli Hartle all scored for Saint Vincent in the loss as well.

Brady Bears was 11-23 in the faceoff circle, while also scooping up a team-high three ground balls. Garrett Ritts took the loss in net, making ten saves for Saint Vincent. Shawn Ryan and Layne Heininger led Saint Vincent with two caused turnovers each.

After a scoreless opening two minutes of play, Ohio Northern scored two goals just over one minute apart from each other to put the Polar Bears up 2-0. A little over one minute later, Ritchie got the Bearcats on the board with his first career collegiate goal to cut the lead to 2-1. The Polar Bears responded, scoring the next three points to take a 5-1 advantage with 5:30 to play in the period.

Hunt followed with his goal less than 40 seconds later to cut the lead to 5-2. Ohio Northern scored two more goals before the quarter's end to take a 7-2 lead into the second waurter.

In the second quarter, Saint Vincent and Ohio Northern traded goals in the early portions. After a Polar Bears goal, Wodarek scored for SVC as the score was 8-3. ONU increased that lead to 9-3 with another goal, before Wodarek found the back of the net for the second time in the quarter, followed by a goal from McCall to cut the lead to 9-5. However, the Polar Bears responded once again with two more goals to close out the quarter, as the Bearcats found themselves trailing 11-5 at the half.

Out of the half, it was a much lower scoring third quarter. ONU outscored SVC 2-1 in the quarter as the Bearcats lone goal came from Haid.

It was much of the same story in the fourth quarter. The Polar Bearcats slightly outscored SVC 3-2 to hold on for the win. McCall and Ritchie were Saint Vincent's two goal scorers in the final quarter.

ONU outshot the Bearcats 38-28 over the course of the contest. Saint Vincent was 17-25 on clears, while Ohio Northern was 26-28. Ground balls were 33-22 in favor of the Polar Bears as well. 

The Bearcats return to action next Saturday, February 22 with a matchup against The College of Wooster in Latrobe. The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday.