ALLIANCE, Ohio -- No. 2 seed Mount Union suffered an 8-6 loss to No. 3 seed John Carroll in the semifinals of the 2014 Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Lacrosse Tournament Wednesday at Mount Union Stadium in Alliance.

John Carroll (13-3) advances to the title game Saturday at No. 1 seed Otterbein -- a 16-10 winner over No. 4 seed Baldwin Wallace in the other semifinal.

Mount Union, in its second year of varsity lacrosse after a nearly 20-year hiatus, finishes its season with a record of 12-5.

John Carroll got a game high three goals from the conference's top goal scorer -- Declan O'Grady, Kyle Patterson had five ground balls and was 12-of-17 on faceoffs while goalie Brian Bedell had six saves.

Josh Stephens (North Canton/Green) had two goals, Chris Daley (Wilmington, Del./Dupont) had three assists, Hogan Harris (Medina/Medina) had a goal, an assist and four ground balls while Collin Peters (Portland, Ore./Sunset) had nine saves all to lead Mount Union.

The Blue Streaks never trailed in the game and got on the board with a score 3:42 into the contest.  Mount Union would tie the game with a goal from Jack Wesner (Medina/Medina) at the 3:01 mark before O'Grady would notch his first of the game for the Blue Streaks 51 seconds later to give them a 2-1 lead after one quarter.

John Carroll extended the lead to 3-1 with a goal in the opening minute of the second quarter and Harris cut the margin back to one, 3-2, with a score with 13:11 left in the half.  O'Grady scored again for the Streaks with 10:58 left in the quarter.  Mount Union got it to within 4-3 at halftime after Stephens scored a man-up goal with 8:55 remaining in the period.

The only score of the third quarter was a man-up goal from John Carroll 2:34 into the period to put the score at 5-3 heading into the final quarter.

Stephens scored his second man-up goal of the game two minutes into the quarter to get the Raiders back to within a goal -- 5-4.  Just under three minutes later, John Carroll notched a pair of goals in nine seconds to take its largest lead of the game at 7-4 with 10:20 to go.

Mount Union rallied again with goal from Derek Thomas (Erie, Pa./McDowell) and then another from Jack Moran (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) that brought the deficit back to one at 7-6 with 9:18 to play.

O'Grady scored his third of the game with seven minutes left for the 8-6 final.

Mount Union Stadium - Alliance, Ohio

GAME SUMMARY:

Team                       1-2-3-4    Final

John Carroll             2-2-1-3      8
Mount Union            1-2-0-3      6

Scoring (Goals-Assists):
John Carroll: Declan O'Grady (3-0), Dominic Starvaggi (0-2), Jackson Twomey (1-0), Keegan Flinter (1-0), Daniel Kincaid (1-0), Brian Jaszka (1-0), Michael Roth (0-1), Garry Anile (1-0)
Mount Union: Derek Thomas (1-0), Andrew Dorman (0-1), Jack Moran (1-0), Josh Stephens (2-0), Jack Wesner (1-0), Hogan Harris (1-1), Chris Daley (0-3).

Shots: John Carroll 28, Mount Union 22
Ground Balls: John Carroll 22, Mount Union 18
Faceoffs: John Carroll 12-of-17, Mount Union 5-of-17