Contact: Matthew Eaker, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, mreaker@noctrl.edu 

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Apr. 6, 2022) - Opening up College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) play, the North Central College men's lacrosse team fell short in their 16-13 loss to the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans yesterday night inside Tucci Stadium. 

The last time these two teams met was  in the CCIW Championships last season where the Titans (6-4, 2-0 CCIW) took down the Cardinals 18-17 in overtime to win another conference tournament. Last night, the Cardinals (4-5, 0-1 CCIW) looked to knock off the defending champions in their first game of conference play. 

The game started off promising for the Cardinals as Jack Moran and Nick Rubino both tallied two quick goals to give the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead. However, the Titans would go on a five goal run to put them up 5-2 with six minutes remaining in the first quarter. Rubino would tally his 11th goal of the season off an assist from Luke Illgen to cut the Titan lead to two. Less than two minutes later, Illgen would find the back of the net, putting the Cardinals down one heading into the second quarter. The second quarter would open with a quick Titans goal before Joey D'Cuhna would score, putting the Cardinal down one once again. After a Titan penalty, Tom Eberhardt would tally his 28th goal of the season off an assist from Scott Allgood to tie the game up at six with eight minutes remaining in the half. Titans attackman Rick Smith would tally two quick goals to give them another two goal lead before Allgood would cut the lead to one with four minutes remaining. After another Titan goal, Moran would tally another goal, putting the Cardinals down 9-8 heading into the half. 

The second half started just like the first half as Rubino tallied his second goal of the game to tie the game at nine but the Titans would score two unanswered goals to reclaim the lead. Moran would score off an assist from D'Cuhna before Rubino would tie the game up once again but the Cardinals would head into the final quarter of play down 12-11. Samuel Russchenberg would tie the game up at 12 early in the fourth quarter off an assist from Allgood. The Titans would put the Cardinals away as they rattled off four straight goals to take home a 16-13 win. 

Rubino led the team with four goals while Moran had three goals and Eberhardt had two goals. Russchenberg, D'Cuhna, Allgood and Illgen each had one goal. Allgood led the team with two assists and three points. Trenton Herubin led the defense with four caused turnovers and eight ground balls while Jake Allgood tallied 15 saves as he fell to 4-5 on the season. 

The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday, Apr. 9 as they host Augustana College (IL) in their second game of conference play. The opening face-off is set for 1 pm inside Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. 

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