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

Box Score

Apr. 3, 2019 – The North Central College men's lacrosse team came out ready to challenge the defending College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) champions on Wednesday, scoring the first two tallies of the game against Illinois Wesleyan University (9-1, 1-0 CCIW) and exhibiting stellar goaltending throughout, but ultimately fell victim to a dominant second period by the Titans and surrendered a 12-4 loss to open conference play.

Neither team was able to find an offensive break in the opening minutes of the game, but nearly halfway through the first period, Tommy Huizinga found an open Tanner James with time and room to shoot and put North Central on the board first. After the Cardinals won the following faceoff, Huizinga connected with Jared Weaver for another North Central goal and force Illinois Wesleyan to call a timeout. The Titans responded with a goal from Will Rossi a minute later and despite numerous errant shots and six big time saves by Dylan Cost in the second period, took control of the lead at the half, 5-2.

The Cardinals were not discouraged but energized coming out of the locker room, considering the last time the two teams met, North Central was trailing 15-3 at this point of the game last season. The Cardinals limited the Titans to only two goals in the third period and Weaver added his second of the night off of an assist from Noah Parrill to cut the score 7-3.

Cost and the defensive unit tried their best to thwart any opportunities for Illinois Wesleyan from there on out, as the junior goalkeeper made ten saves in the second half, and were able to keep the opponent from scoring in the final six minutes. Unfortunately, the Titans ability to control the faceoff throughout the game and make 27 of 29 clear attempts aided in their victory and handed the Cardinals a loss on their home turf.

Weaver and James were the lone scorers for the Cardinals with two goals apiece while Huzinga had two assists. John Fitzgerald came up with six caused turnovers and Casimer Ploncynzski and Cost both had a team-high seven ground balls. Cost had a stellar game between the pipes, making 18 critical saves to keep the Titans from running away with the score and was one save shy of tying his single-game best.

North Central (8-1, 0-1 CCIW) returns home on Tuesday, Apr. 9 to continue CCIW action with a game against Carroll University at 7 p.m. Links to live in-game coverage can be found HERE.