By Michael Rich
Ben Baker scored six goals to lead Upper Arlington, including four of the Golden Bears’ five goals in the decisive third period, and Olentangy was unable to recover and fell 12-6 Tuesday night in Columbus.
Baker scored four goals and Nicolas Amore scored the other as UA (1-0) extended a 6-5 lead at the break into a 12-6 advantage in the third period.
“(Baker) sees the ball very well,” Olentangy coach Zach Peterson said. “If you’re late on the double, he’ll make you pay. But, if you’re on time, he’s got such great hands and vision. He does a great job … great kid, too.”
The Bears started strong in each period, scoring nine of their goals in the first four minutes of the period.
“A team like Upper Arlington — they’re always going to make you pay when you make mistakes,” Peterson said. “We saw some young guys make some young mistakes and I’m confident we’ll fix those moving forward.”
Baker, Jack Dolan and Danny Logan each scored goals to give UA a 3-0 lead 3 minutes and 42 seconds into the game.
But Olentangy (2-1) got two goals by Sam Camacho, both assisted by Patrick Grubb, to cut the deficit to 4-3 at the end of the first.
Baker and Logan scored a pair of goals in the first 3:12 of the second period.
Camacho picked up his third goal of the game a couple of minutes later and Cam Kennedy scored with 1:48 to go in the half to cut the deficit back to one at the break.
“He’s done a great job moving off-ball,” Peterson said of Camacho. “He’s very comfortable with the stick in his hands. He’s a big kid and he’s only a sophomore, so we’ve got high hopes for what he’s going to do for us in the future.”
Grubb ended up with three assists and Zach Whitenack had one for Olentangy, who knocked off Solon last Friday. Solon finished fifth in the state last season behind fourth-ranked UA.
“I’ve told our guys all along that we don’t really want to get too high and we don’t really want to get too low,” Peterson said.
Dolan had two assists and Logan and Nicko Schuman each had one for UA.
Next up, Olentangy returns home to play Mason Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
—
Follow Michael Rich on Twitter @mrichdelgazette.
