Last week, the Kenyon men’s lacrosse team played its first pair of home games. The Owls secured a win in their home opener on Friday against the Colorado College Tigers with a score of 10-7. Then, on Wednesday, the Owls took to the Field at Benson Bowl once more where they bested the Baldwin Wallace Yellowjackets.
On Friday, the game got off to a slow start, remaining scoreless for the first nine minutes of play after seven unsuccessful shots from the Owls and three from the Tigers. Fortunately, Kenyon’s eighth shot, fired off by David Chintala ’26, found the back of the net to give the Owls the early lead. Following the goal, Kenyon continued on the front foot and Gavin Gumucio ’26, assisted by Chintala, put the Owls up 2-0. This time, Colorado fought back, finding its first goal of the game. After the Colorado score, Will Jordan ’26 won the faceoff to give Kenyon the kickstart it needed, allowing Gumucio to score and put the Owls up 3-1.
Despite the tone set by Gumucio at the end of the first, the Tigers came out of the locker room with a vengeance, scoring twice in the first four minutes of the second quarter to tie the game. Luckily, Nathan Kissela ’26 got the scoring started back up for the Owls, putting them back in the lead. The Tigers answered with yet another game-tying goal, but Gumucio pulled the Owls ahead once again, sending Kenyon to the half up 5-4.
After the break, the Owls got their spark back, as Rollins Heath ’25 increased the lead to two goals a minute and a half into the quarter. However, the Tigers didn’t go down without a fight, finding the back of the net not long after Heath to decrease the deficit to a single goal. Kenyon continued to pepper Colorado’s goaltender, firing off six shots before McCarren broke the silence to put them up 7-5. As the quarter wound down, Gumucio found Heath to go into the final 15 minutes of play with a three goal lead. The Tigers scored twice in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, leaving the Owls scrambling with a one point lead. Fortunately, Kenyon got the ball to Gumucio, who found the back of the net twice more, effectively ending the game with a 10-7 Owls victory.
Over the course of the game, Kenyon had 59 shots, 29 of which were on goal. However, these numbers do not satisfy Gumucio. “The most significant area we need to improve is shooting,” he wrote in an email to the Collegian. “We played great offense and had plenty of opportunities but couldn’t finish the plays. Baldwin Wallace is a great team, but we will work on what we didn’t do well and come into Wednesday ready to win.”
McCarren, on the other hand, thought some of the day’s stats were worth noting. “I have to give a lot of credit to our faceoff man, [Thomas Nelson ’25], in dominating the faceoff X and giving the offense a lot of possession time leading to our victory,” he wrote in an email to the Collegian. Nelson ended up going 16-16 on face-offs in this game, earning him NCAC Athlete of the Week honors and USILA D-III Team of the Week honors.
On Wednesday, Baldwin Wallace started off hot, scoring in the first minute of the game, but Miles Malawer ’27 shot back just thirty seconds later to get Kenyon on the board. After some back and forth, Kenyon took the lead thanks to a Gumucio goal. Mike Kapral ’26 laced one more for the Owls, putting Kenyon up 3-1 to end the quarter. The Owls saw four more goals before half time from Gumucio, Chintala, Tanner Lewis ’27 and Heath, compared to just one from the Yellowjackets, to end the quarter 7-2.
McCarren and Kapral scored just two goals in the third quarter for Kenyon, while Baldwin Wallace chipped away at the lead, finding the net three times to go into the final quarter 9-5. In the fourth quarter, McCarren, Malawer and Kapral contributed four more to Kenyon’s total to close out the 13-7 victory.
The men’s lacrosse team will be back in action on Sunday on the Field at Benson Bowl against Adrian College (Mich.) for their third match-up of the season. McCarren says the team is intent on cleaning up mistakes. “Our biggest focuses moving into our next game is to make sure we continue to be consistent on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We have to believe in the system that have been put in place by our amazing coaches, and trust each other throughout the season.”