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

Box Score

MEQUON, Wis. (March 28, 2018) – The North Central College men's lacrosse team challenged Concordia University Wisconsin (5-4) on Wednesday, taking an early lead and rallying from behind to tie the game twice, but the Falcons prevailed on their home turf, handing the Cardinals their sixth loss of the season.

The Cardinals dominated the first period, jumping ahead to a 3-0 lead after Tommy Huizinga started the scoring with a goal at the 5:27 followed by a goal from Jacob Ray minutes later. Huizinga scored his second goal of the game on a man-up possession off of an assist from Gavin Foote with 1:38 remaining in the period. The Falcons scored with six seconds remaining in the first period, despite being down a player with the penalty, to get on the board and begin to challenge North Central.

The Falcons quickly regained control of the game, going on a four-point run to take a 4-3 lead, but Jared Weaver found an opening in CUW's defense to halt the Falcon's momentum with 5:28 remaining before halftime and tie the score, 4-4. The Falcons would take a 5-4 lead off of a goal from Aidan Connolly going into halftime.

Both teams' defenses held strong coming out of the locker room, but Tanner James was able to find the back of the net off of an assist from Foote to knot the game 5-5. The Falcons rallied back to take the lead with another four-point run that would prove too much for North Central to come back from, despite two goals from James in the fourth period, ultimately falling to CUW, 10-7.

James led North Central with three goals while Huizinga added two and Ray and Jared Weaver scored one each. Foote played the role of playmaker during the game, tallying two assists and Noah Parrill added one.

Defensively, Brandon Pearl set a new single-game record with seven caused turnovers and also collected three ground balls. Noah Swisshelm led the defense with five ground balls and Dylan Cost made eight saves.

The Cardinals outshot the Falcons, 36-38, and led the ground ball category as well with 30 to the opponent's 25. Neither team had much success on extra man opportunities as the Cardinals went 1-7 and Concordia Wisconsin went 1-4 on both teams' combined 12 minutes of penalties.

North Central (3-6) hosts its final non-conference game on Saturday, March 31 against Adrian College. Game time is set for 1 P.M. and a link to live in-game coverage, including a live broadcast from NCTV17, can be found HERE.