Wabash outscored Hiram 4-0 in the third period of Saturday's North Coast Athletic Conference men's lacrosse road game. The four-goal advantage gave the Little Giants the lead they would never relinquish in the 8-6 victory to close out the 2022 season.
 
The victory is the second win in a row for Wabash (4-12, 1-8 NCAC) versus Hiram (4-10, 0-9 NCAC) and the fourth in the six-year conference rivalry between the two schools.
 
Wabash trailed 1-0 after Hiram scored in the first three minutes of the game before Anthony Nguyen scored the first of his four goals in the contest with 4:49 remaining in the first period off an assist from Jeremiah Eaton. Josh Taylor provided a 2-1 lead for the Little Giants in the second period with his goal at the 9:10 mark off a pass from Caulin Fitzgerald. Nguyen added his second goal off another assist from Fitzgerald to put Wabash up 3-1.
 
Hiram responded with three goals of its own, including one in the final minute of the first half to take a 4-3 lead at the halftime break.
 
Joseph Plencner ended that lead in the first 20 seconds of the second half. He tied the game with his team-best 25^th goal of the season and 74^th of his career to even the score at 4-4. Taylor provided the final lead of the game for Wabash with a goal at 12:12 of the third period to put the Little Giants in front 5-4. Nguyen scored his hat trick with an unassisted goal. Taylor extended the Wabash lead to 7-4 with his third goal of the contest and seventh of the season.
 
Nguyen scored his fourth and final goal of the match and 21^st of the season to answer a goal from Hiram to keep Wabash in front by three goals at 8-5. Fitzgerald handed out his third assist of the game and ninth of the season on the play.
 
The Terriers added a final goal with five minutes remaining in the contest, but Wabash clamped down on defense in the final stretch to hold Hiram without a shot attempt to secure the victory.
 
Wabash outshot Hiram 31-29 in the contest and put 24 shots on goal compared to 22 for the Terriers. Plencner led the way with seven total shots and six shots on goal. Nguyen and Artie Rogers each finished with six total shots and four shots on goal apiece. Luka DiFilippo dominated the faceoff dot by winning 13 of 17 faceoffs in the game.
 
Evan Schiefelbein closed out his career by causing a team-high three turnovers while matching his season-high total with nine ground balls in the match. He finishes his career as the Wabash all-time leader in ground balls with 293 and the record-holder in ground balls per game with an average of 6.23. His 111 caused turnovers are also a Wabash career record. Schiefelbein averaged 3.25 caused turnovers per game this season to break Scott Purucker's single-season average of 2.93 set in 2016.
 
Stephen Krajcir earned the victory in goal for Wabash in his second start of the season. He finished the game with 10 saves to earn his first win of the year.