GAMBIER, Ohio – For three quarters, the Kenyon College men's lacrosse team gave the undefeated and No. 8-ranked Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops all they could handle. Things unraveled, however, for the Lords in the fourth quarter and Ohio Wesleyan escaped McBride Field with 10-7 conference win.

Kenyon (4-3, 1-1 NCAC) maintained or shared the lead for the first 46 minutes of the contest. Goals from Jonah Florence, Robert Jacobs, and Alex Lopez kicked-started the Kenyon crew and got them through the first quarter with a 3-1 lead.

Second-quarter goals by seniors Justin Coleman and Pat Kim, gave the Lords their largest leads of the game at 4-1 and 5-2. Ohio Wesleyan was able to net the last score of the half and stumbled into the break facing a 5-3 deficit.

The Battling Bishops (7-0, 2-0 NCAC) picked up their intensity in the third quarter and began firing shots at a frantic pace. They uncorked 16 in the quarter, but only two found their way into the Lords' net and one was neutralized by a Kenyon goal from another senior, Nick Lenard.

With Kenyon ahead 6-5 early in the fourth quarter, the solid effort the Lords had made was undermined by mistakes. An awkward pass from a Kenyon defender back toward the goal found its way across the Lords' goal line. It was accidental gift for the Battling Bishops, who now found themselves locked in 6-6 tie.

A quick start off an out-of-bounds reset caught Kenyon off guard with 7:38 left in the game and Ohio Wesleyan's Kyle Foster made the Lords pay. He fired in the first of two game-changing goals to give the Battling Bishops their first lead.

Within the game's next seven seconds, Ohio Wesleyan's Sam Gioseffi won the ensuing face off, marched up the field, dished off to John Umbach, and watched him score to give Ohio Wesleyan a two-goal cushion at 8-6.

Gioseffi played a huge role in the Bishops' success, that is once Kenyon's Jack Fraser was sidelined with an injury. For most of the game, the two faced-off pretty evenly with Gioseffi holding a slim 6-5 advantage over Fraser. After Fraser went down, Gioseffi went on to win eight of the game's final nine face-offs.

The Ohio Wesleyan offense continued to bombard the Lords' net in the fourth quarter, racking up another 18 shots. With just under five minutes to play, one of those shots hit the Kenyon crossbar and was corralled by Kenyon goalkeeper Patrick Shevelson. The junior tried to hurry the ball back up field, but his clearing pass was picked off at close range by Foster. Foster didn't have to do too much work to get his shot past a reeling Shevelson. His second goal of the game made it 9-6 in favor of the visitors.

Fritz Waine, yet another Kenyon senior, got one goal back for the Lords at the 3:14 mark, but it was answered a couple minutes later by the Bishops, who closed out the game with the three-goal margin.

Overall, Ohio Wesleyan outshot Kenyon 51-39 and won 15-of-21 face-offs. Shevelson wound up making 15 saves for the Lords. Kenyon was 1-for-3 with the extra man and held Ohio Wesleyan scoreless in five extra-man opportunities.

Next up for Kenyon is a non-conference game Wednesday at Otterbein University. That contest kicks off a stretch that will have the Lords play five of their next six games on the road.