Nick Wilson, Carter Kirtley and Michael Parsio all had hat tricks to lead the Olentangy boys lacrosse team to a 13-8 non-league win over visiting Big Walnut Friday night in Lewis Center.
The Braves were strong right out of the gate, jumping out to a 1-0 lead when Wilson fired a rocket into the back of the net less than three minutes into the action.
The Golden Eagles answered when Luke Chiles scored a man-up goal with 7:59 left in the opening quarter, but Olentangy scored five of the next six to open up a 6-2 lead by the break.
Wilson scored from long range to make it 2-1 with 4:09 left in the first and the Braves played from in front the rest of the way. Ben Dorbish scored off a nice find from Will Biggins after Olentangy goalie Alec Palmer made a strong save at the other end and Parsio scored his first of three goals with 23.9 seconds left in the first.
Already up 4-1, Kirtley ran from behind the Golden Eagle goal, spun in front and converted from a tough angle to balloon the margin to 6-1 as the Braves were rolling with 6:04 left in the second quarter.
It was then, down big late in the half, Big Walnut stepped up its game in a major way. BW’s Ashton Baker scored a goal that looked a lot like Kirtley’s, starting from behind the cage and spinning in front for a score, and goalie Carson Withrow stopped shots from Ryan Petrone, Wilson and Mason Bruening late in the quarter to make sure the four-goal spread didn’t get worse by halftime.
Things got tighter from there as Gordon Rond made it a 6-3 game with a goal just nine seconds into the third quarter. Wilson answered for Olentangy, collecting his hat trick with a goal at the 9:21 mark of the third quarter, but the Eagles scored the next two to tighten things up to 7-5 with 8:04 left in the third.
Caleb Sanford scored the first and Braden Andreini beat Palmer low less than a minute later to make it a two-goal game.
That’s as close as it would get, though, as the Braves finished with a flourish.
Bryce Collins found Kirtley alone in front of the net to push the lead to 8-5 midway through the third and Brady Ramsey added a tally to make it 9-5 after three.
Collins scored nine seconds into the fourth to increase the lead to 10-5 and, after Big Walnut scored three of the next four — a goal by Rond and back-to-back scores by Baker to make it 11-8 with 5:30 left — Olentangy smoothed out the scoring summary as Kirtley and Parsio scored to complete their respective hat tricks.
BOYS TENNIS
Olentangy Berlin picked up a season-opening win over host Reynoldsburg Friday, sweeping the singles courts on the way to a 4-1 decision.
Berlin standouts included Josh McKnight, who won 6-3, 6-1 at first singles; Logan Van Home, who notched a 6-0, 6-0 victory at second singles; Akhil Damarla, who won 6-2, 6-1 at third singles; and the duo of Kathir Maarikarthykeyan and Jace Boyce, who picked up a 7-5, 6-4 win at first doubles.
