GAMBIER, Ohio -- Storming back from deficits of 10-5 and 13-10, the Kenyon College men's lacrosse team put together a remarkable performance Saturday evening and recorded a historic 14-13 upset of the No. 12-ranked Denison University Big Red.

The stunning win was Kenyon's first against the powerhouse Denison program since the beginning of the 2006 season, a span of 19 games. Additionally, the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular-season loss for the Big Red was their first since the start of the 2021 campaign, a 15-game stretch.

With Denison leading Saturday's contest for the majority of the first three quarters, the turning point came when the Big Red were flagged for a two-minute unnecessary roughness penalty, one of the unreleasable variety, at the 5:03 mark of the third quarter. At that point, the Big Red owned a 10-5 lead.

Over the course of that two-minute penalty, playing a man-up, Kenyon scored three times. Not only did the surge pull the Owls within two goals, but also gave the team new life. Chase MacCartee scored the first of the three Kenyon man-up goals and David Chintala scored the other two.

The momentum did not let up. Kenyon scored twice more in the third and knotted things up at 10-10. Rollins Heath netted Kenyon's ninth goal and Jack Giuffre scored the tenth, capitalizing on another man-up situation for the Owls.

Rattled, but not knocked out, Denison answered with the final goal of the third quarter to take an 11-10 lead into the final frame. The Big Red scored the first two goals of that fourth quarter, as well, and now owned a 13-10 lead with 7:51 left in the game.

Kenyon went back to work and, again, chipped away at the Denison lead. Joe Boesel set up Colin McCarthy at the 5:26 mark and then Boesel scored on his own 39 seconds later to pull the Owls within two goals.

With 1:12 left, Heath willed his way to a tie ball game. After bowling over one Denison defender, Heath shook off a second. Then, charging at the Denison goal, he eluded a third Denison defender, and, falling over, placed his shot into the upper right corner of the Big Red net.

That set the stage for a wild finish in which Denison won the face-off and immediately turned the ball over. As the Kenyon offense set up in the Big Red zone, the Owls turned the ball over with 34 seconds left. Denison, however, only maintained possession for nine seconds. As it tried to clear the ball, Chintala stepped in front of the clearing pass, knocked it down, scooped it up just to the right of Denison net, and pumped in the game-winner with 22 seconds left on the clock.

Denison, now 7-2 overall and 1-1 in the NCAC, won the final face-off, but could only muster a bad angle shot that was off the mark.

Heath ended up leading Kenyon, now 8-1 overall and 1-1 in the NCAC, with six points on four goals and two assists. Chintala finished with three goals, including the most important one, while Gavin Gumucio added two goals and an assist. Giuffre, MacCartee and Boesel all finished with one goal and one assist for Kenyon, which was out-shot by Denison, 49-38.

All other stats were fairly similar, except for man-up goals. Denison was 1-of-3, Kenyon was 6-of-8.

At the back end of the Kenyon defense, goalkeeper Adam Hall made 16 saves.