On Saturday, No. 1 Northwestern lacrosse defeated Ohio State 19-10 in its final home regular season game of the year. This game was also the Wildcats’ first game inside Martin Stadium this season, and the team was cheered on by 1,452 fans who filled up the outdoor bleachers.
Martin Stadium is packed for @NULax matchup against Ohio State — the Wildcats’ first outdoor home game of the season pic.twitter.com/FrGCuDKv5G
— Inside NU (@insidenu) April 13, 2024
“I missed it a lot. I love being out here,” graduate student Dylan Amonte said of playing in Martin Stadium. “The crowd’s great — it feels like they’re right on the field with us,”
Amonte was the star of the show against the Buckeyes, tallying a single-game career-high of six goals after scoring zero goals in Northwestern’s last game against Maryland. This matchup marked the first time since April 2023 that a player not named graduate student Izzy Scane or sophom*ore Madison Taylor scored over six goals in one game.
“[Amonte] has just been a constant for us,” Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “Most of the time, she’s doing all the right things and just making things happen on the offensive end. Sometimes it’s in the stat category, other times it’s not — today it was so, [I’m] really happy for her.
She’s been working really hard on her finishing and that work is really starting to pay off.”
Other top performers were graduate student Erin Coykendall (two goals, six assists), Taylor (five goals, one assist) and Scane (two goals, three assist). Scane’s second assist was her 446th career point, which moved her passed Maryland’s Jen Adams as the all-time Big Ten leading point scorer and the NCAA’s third-all-time point scorer.
Defensively, junior Samantha White and senior Kendall Halpern had three caused turnovers apiece, while Halpern also led the team with four ground balls. Graduate student Molly Laliberty made four saves in the cage and was replaced in the fourth quarter by junior Cara Nugent, who saved three shots herself.
Northwestern started the game hot, outscoring Ohio State 8-2 in the first quarter and scoring six consecutive goals. Headed into the second quarter, the game looked like a running clock victory for the Wildcats. However, the Buckeyes clawed back in the second quarter, winning six out of seven draw controls over the next 15 minutes while tying NU 3-3 scoring-wise. Headed into halftime, Northwestern had an 11-5 lead.
The third quarter was Ohio State’s best quarter of the game. Although Northwestern won the draw battle 4-3 in this frame, the Buckeyes were able to force the Wildcats to take bad shots, outscoring them 4-2 and going on a three-goal run. After the third quarter, Northwestern’s defense realized it needed to adjust to stop the bleeding.
“Give credit to them, they were a great Ohio State team that came at us really strong throughout the game,” Halpern said. “In that third quarter, I think we needed a little more focus, a little more intensity, going back to defense.”
Northwestern flipped the switch in the fourth quarter, scoring five consecutive goals and allowing just one goal from Ohio State. In the final 15 minutes of the game, the score went from 14-9 to 19-10 and the Wildcats pulled away with an easy victory.
— Northwestern Lax (@NULax) April 13, 2024That's goal No. 5⃣ for Dylan!
Execution pic.twitter.com/m8A9a5AaBd
In the end, Northwestern narrowly won the draw battle 17-15 — a rare difference for the team that is third in the nation for draw controls per game. It also had 15 turnovers compared to Ohio State’s 22 and outshot the Buckeyes 37-25.
“When we play together, we’re unstoppable,” Amonte said. “Today, we really, especially in the fourth quarter, came out and were getting each other open and playing for each other. And I just think that is when we’re at our best.”
Lacrosse play aside, there was the big celebrity draw of five-time Super Bowl champion and former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who was in attendance for the matchup.
Belichick is friends with Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, and his daughter Amanda is the head coach of the Holy Cross women’s lacrosse team. Before the game, he visited the Wildcat players in their locker room.
— Northwestern Lax (@NULax) April 13, 20241️⃣4️⃣ rings x2
6x Super Bowl Champ Bill Belichick had to come check out the Lake Show pic.twitter.com/7EonR9F4Yd
“The cool part of having [Bellichick] here is for our players to see how humble he is as a person,” Amonte Hiller said. “We really preach that humility to our players and to see someone so successful in his whole life and really has built his own career, it’s just an honor to have him on the sideline.”
Northwestern will next face No. 6 Michigan in Ann Arbor on April 21 in its regular season finale. Assuming that the Wolverines beat No. 8 Johns Hopkins on Sunday, their game versus the Wildcats will decide the winner of the Big Ten regular season title and the No. 1 seed for Big Ten Tournament.
