Contact: Emily Zadny, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302 

Box Score

Feb. 17, 2018 – A cohesive team-effort and record-breaking individual performances highlighted the North Central College men's lacrosse team's 23-0 win against Concordia University-Chicago on Saturday as the young squad began year two with the support of its home crowd at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.

Nick Pardo got the Cardinals rolling one minute into the first quarter before connecting with Tommy Huizinga at 9:33 to make the score 2-0. For the remainder of the first quarter, it would be the Noah Parrill show as the sophomore had a hand in six of the eight points including four assists. The Cougars struggled to create any offense and went into the second quarter trailing by eight.

The Cardinals' offense continued to take the open opportunities, but failed to put the ball on cage until Huizinga found Jared Weaver on the extra man opportunity at 10:15 in the second quarter. The goal sparked North Central's momentum as the Cardinals would score three more goals before going into halftime with a 13-0 lead, including two within six seconds by Huizinga and Pardo off of assists by Parrill.

North Central continued to keep a strong hold on the game coming out of the locker room as Concordia struggled to clear the ball and generate offense. The Cardinals quickly capitalized on their possessions, including a goal from Weaver off of an assist from Gavin Foote in the early minute of the third quarter. Concordia's Brian Harris found an opening in the Cardinals' defense only to have his shot blocked. The Cardinals' regained possession and Parrill continued to be in-sync with his teammates, dishing out four more assists to Babor and Tanner James to put North Central ahead 22-0.

The Cougars began to see the game slip away going into the fourth quarter as the snow began to fall faster. Parrill found Foote at 13:05 for the final score of the contest before the officials called the game due to worsening field conditions.

Parrill began his season on a high-note, establishing new single-game highs in points (14) and assists (11) and breaking the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) single-game records in both categories. Pardo and James each scored five goals while Parrill, Weaver, and Babor contributed three. Foote and John Fitzgerald each tallied two caused turnovers and Jacob Ray was dominant on the face-off, setting a new single-game high 16 face offs won and scooping a team-high 10 ground balls.  

As a team, North Central established a new single-game high face-off percentage (.833) and went 2-2 in extra-man opportunities in addition to eight successful clear on nine attempts.

The Cardinals (1-0) travel to Grand Rapids, Mich. on Saturday, Feb. 24 to play Calvin College. Game time is set for 1 p.m. (ET) and a link for live in-game coverage can be found HERE.