GAMBIER, Ohio -- A lightning-fast start backed by a stout defense the rest of the way carried the Kenyon College men's lacrosse team past Ohio Wesleyan University and into the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament final. The host Lords dropped the Battling Bishops in Wednesday's semifinal, 12-6. Kenyon, making its second consecutive appearance in the conference finale, improved to 14-3, a program single-season record for wins. In the upcoming NCAC final, which will take place Saturday, the Lords will take on the winner of tonight's other NCAC semifinal game between Denison University and Oberlin College. Ohio Wesleyan, which finished its campaign with back-to-back-losses to Kenyon, caps its overall record at 10-6. While the Kenyon defense has been the team's backbone all season, the offense blitzed Ohio Wesleyan Wednesday, scoring six straight before the visitors could respond. Matt Pollack and Mike Matteo opened the scoring for the Lords. Weston Powell added a man-up goal and then Declan Curry and Jack Giuffre followed, boosting Kenyon to 5-0 lead after one quarter of play. Midway through the second quarter, Joe Boesel fired in a man-up goal and the Lords were ahead 6-0. It wasn't until there was 2:56 left in the half that the Battling Bishops scored their first goal. That tally, however, was answered by another Pollack goal, in a man-down situation, that pushed Kenyon into halftime with a convincing 7-1 advantage. The lead grew to 8-1 in the third quarter and then 11-3 at the start of the fourth quarter. At the 6:07 mark of the fourth, Giuffre scored again to give Kenyon its largest margin at 12-3. Giuffre ended up leading all scorers with four points on two goals and two assists. Over the last four minutes of the game, Ohio Wesleyan doubled its score, registering three goals to finalize things at 12-6. Following Giuffre on the scoring chart was Pollack and Boesel, who both finished with three points. Pollack scored a game-high three goals, while Boesel had two goals and an assist. Curry, Matteo, Powell and Rollins Heath all finished with a two-point game for the Lords. On the other side of the field, the Kenyon defense, which came into the game ranked third in the nation in scoring defense (6.81 goals allowed per game), smothered Ohio Wesleyan, which took 32 shots, but only managed 16 on goal. Additionally, the Lords defense forced 22 Ohio Wesleyan turnovers and blanked the Battling Bishops in two extra-man opportunities. At the back end of that defense, senior goalkeeper Mayo Amorello made 10 saves. He now has 169 saves on the season and a sparkling .619 save percentage that ranks 12th-best among all goalkeepers in NCAA Division III.