Men's Lacrosse

Alex Baruch leads the nation with a 4.63 goals against average. He posted 16 saves in Denison's 9-2 win over Kenyon on Saturday.

The nation's top-ranked defense knew it would be tested on Saturday afternoon.  Kenyon was coming off a conference win over Ohio Wesleyan on Sunday and had hopes of securing their second North Coast Athletic Conference championship with a win today.

Denison, who has been on a tear of late, averaging 17.9 goals per game during their eight-game winning streak, has moved up to No. 13 in the latest national coaches poll and boasts arguably the hottest goalie in the country in senior Alex Baruch (Richmond, Va./St. Christopher's).

While the offense has put up some gaudy numbers, Baruch and the Denison defense proved worthy of their ranking as the Big Red rolled past No. 19 Kenyon, 9-2.

The Lords may be growing weary of seeing Baruch between the pipes for Denison.  Last year he held Kenyon to just one goal while making 13 saves.  This year the Lords snuck two goals by Baruch but were stung  in the first half as he turned away quality attempts, time and time again.

Baruch ended the game with 16 saves highlighted by a second quarter which saw Kenyon fire 12 shots his way only to have the door slammed by the DU senior netminder nine times.

The defense might have been the story but the offense set the tone early as Dan Maude (Wayne, Pa./Haverford School) scored 39 seconds into the contest.  Kenyon's Devin Catlin would tie the game with 9:12 left in the quarter but Rick Mackessy (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) and Nate Hall (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) would team up for two consecutive goals to end the first and open the second to give DU a 3-1 lead.

The Lords would score for the second time after Zach Wallace took a feed from Catlin with 7:19 left in the second but that would be the final point for the Lords as Denison notched the final six goals of the game to lock up the win.

Defensemen Jim Minor (Washington, Pa./Trinity), Dave Harman (Hudson, Ohio/Western Reserve Academy) and Chris Gaines (Upper Arlington, Ohio/St. Charles Prep) along with long pole Taylor Nissi (Groton, Mass./Holderness) did a tremendous job containing Kenyon's Catlin, who entered as the nation's second-leading point scorer. 

Another key stat was Denison's domination of the face-off circle.  Conner Detjen (Winnetka, Ill./Loyola Academy) was 8-for-11.  Combine that with Nick Jacob's 3-for-4 day and the Big Red finished 11-for-15 and a perfect 7-for-7 in the second half.

Mackessy was Denison's offensive leader with three goals and two assists.  Maude also posted two goals while Ted Gulyas (Medina, Ohio/Medina) finished with a pair of scores.

Denison improves to 12-2 and runs their winning streak to nine games.  The Big Red will look to secure an outright North Coast Athletic Conference championship next Saturday when Ohio Wesleyan comes to town for a 3 p.m. game at Deeds Field-Piper Stadium.