Wabash cedes seven uncontested points in second half to lose rivalry match
In the 21st century, it is a rare honor for a Wabash team to claim their first-ever victory over DePauw. Unfortunately for the Wabash lacrosse team, that honor will have to wait until next year, at least. In front of a full Wabash crowd in Greencastle on April 15, the Little Giants squandered a commanding 7–2 first half lead and allowed the Tigers to score seven unanswered goals and steal the win, 9–8.
“It’s a rivalry game, right?” said Head Lacrosse Coach Chris Burke. “And in those games, it doesn’t matter how much more talented a team is than the other, they both come to fight. [DePauw] won the second half and put it in the back of the net at critical times. We just couldn’t execute.”
Since the team became a sanctioned varsity sport in 2015, Wabash lacrosse has yet to garner a win against the Tigers. On paper, this should have been the year to do it. The two teams have historically been close in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings, with DePauw placing seventh and Wabash placing eighth overall for the past two seasons. But with Wabash boasting a 7–7 record compared to DePauw’s 5–7 as well as averaging almost a goal and a half more per game this season, it seemed that this could have been the year for the Little Giants to break the seal.
And judging from the first half, it looked as if Wabash would do it. Despite both teams coming out of the locker room keyed up on nerves, it was the Little Giants who settled into the game’s rhythm first. Capitalizing on the energy from two first-quarter goals netted by Quinn Fitzgerald ’26, Wabash jumped out to a 5–1 lead halfway through the second quarter, and it looked like the Little Giants had control of the contest. However, that control would be short-lived.
“That night’s a big game,” said defenseman Bryce Poling ’26. “Obviously the nerves are going to be high. After the first quarter, that usually goes away, but rivalry games are a different breed. There are so many emotions going on, and I think that got to both sides. It was obvious that guys couldn’t hold on to the ball.”
Communication and execution are two hallmarks of any sport’s game plan, and the Little Giants lacrosse team was no different. Constant information relay between players helped the Wabash defense limit the DePauw offense to just two goals on 12 shots in the first half.
“In the first half, we came out and were yelling,” said Poling. “We were being loud. We were telling people what we were doing, and everybody on the field was on the same page. But in the second half that just went away.”
Communication wasn’t the only thing that the Little Giants left in the first half; they left their competitive spark, too. Other than a goal scored by Jake Pippen ’26 early in the third quarter, the Wabash offense was nonexistent for almost 26 of the 30 second-half minutes. Marked by a multitude of turnovers and extensive time spent on defense, the Little Giants’ lackluster energy and inability to execute in the clutch cost them the game down the stretch.
“We took the fundamentals for granted,” said Poling. “If we sharpen those up a bit throughout the game, I think that gives us a couple more goals and maybe a couple more clears. That could have swung things in favor of us, but at the end of the day, you can’t look past the basic rules of the game. I don’t think we did that quite as well as we normally do.”
“We had 10 turnovers in the first half and 16 in the second half,” said Burke. “There’s the story right there. Our whole team just didn’t, just couldn’t, execute. When that happens, the ball’s going to end up the other way.”
DePauw’s comeback was not sudden, either. As the Little Giants struggled to clear the ball out of their own half, the Tigers’ consistent pressure and man-marking, as well as several untimely Wabash penalties slowly shifted the momentum in their favor. But by the time the Tigers scored the winning goal, only two minutes remained on the clock for Wabash to respond.
“We couldn’t stop [them],” said Burke. “I realized that the energy was fluctuating towards them. We have a really young team, and they haven’t been in this type of scenario yet. I’m glad our guys battled, but I think we fell apart in the second half.”
As much as a loss to DePauw can feel like the end of a Wabash team’s season, the Little Giants still have two more conference games to play: one against Hiram on April 19 and the other against Wooster on April 26. With two wins in the next two weeks, Wabash lacrosse still has a chance to bounce back and tally the most conference wins in a season in program history.
“We could look at it two ways,” said Burke. “We could look at it as our season’s over and move on with negativity, or we can turn into a positive and take it to Hiram, take it to Wooster and maybe ruin someone’s season. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the guys to decide if they can lift their heads high and get through this.”