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

Box Score

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (May 5, 2023) - Hosting a College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) semifinal game for the second time in program history, the North Central College men's lacrosse team found themselves on the wrong side of a tightly contested battle as they fell 14-10 to Transylvania University on Thursday night at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. 

The Cardinals (10-6, 5-1 CCIW) dominated the Pioneers (6-10, 4-2 CCIW) in their regular season matchup this season in Lexington, Ky., defeating Tranylsvania 13-7 on their home turf. Last season, the Pioneers knocked off No. 1-seed Illinois Wesleyan to advance to the conference championship and were looking to win yet another big game on the road while the Cardinals were looking to punch their ticket to the CCIW finals for the third year in a row. 

Jack Moran kicked off the scoring with 13:33 remaining in the first period as he fired a shot past Jackson Wilson to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Nick Rubino found Tom Eberhardt four minutes later as the duo gave North Central an early 2-0 lead. CCIW Offensive Player of the Year, Dalton Hubbs, got the Pioneers right back into it as he tallied two unassisted goals to knot the score at two with 8:06 remaining in the first. Luke Illgen extended the Cardinals lead to one but after another Hubbs goal, both teams would head into the second quarter deadlocked at three. 

Just two minutes into the second quarter, Luke Setter found Hubbs for his fourth goal of the game to give the Pioneers a 4-3 advantage  with 13:03 remaining. Rylan McQueary found Illgen for his second goal of the game to knot the game up at four with 12:07 remaining in the quarter. This goal made Illgen the ninth player in program history to reach 100 career points. Joey D'Cunha and Moran found the back of the net just a few minutes later to give North Central a 6-4 lead but they saw that lead fade away as the Pioneers rattled off two goals just 53 seconds apart from each other to tie the game at six. After a Rubino with 5:21 remaining, the Pioneers would net the equalizer to send both teams to the half tied at seven.

The third quarter saw little scoring as Hubbs and Will Warner found the back of the net to extend the Pioneers lead to 9-7 but McQueary took advantage of a man-up opportunity to cut the lead to one. The Pioneers would head into the fourth quarter with a 9-8 lead. 

After Zach Kuyava won the opening face-off of the fourth quarter, Evan Watanabe scooped up the ground ball and fired a shot past Wilson just ten seconds into the quarter to tie the game at nine. However, the Pioneers rattled off four unanswered goals to give them a 13-9 advantage with 6:56 remaining in the game. Rubino found the back of the net just 49 seconds later but Hubbs delivered the dagger as he netted his seventh goal of the game with  34 seconds remaining to upset the Cardinals 14-10. 

Hubbs led all scorers with seven goals while Will Warner netted four goals of his own. Rubino, Moran and Illgen each netted two goals of their own in the contest. Trenton Herubin led the defensive efforts with three caused turnovers while scooping up six ground balls. Kuyava went 17 of 28 at the face-off X for a 61% average. Jake Allgood tallied seven saves as he finished his season with a 6-6 record. 

The Cardinals finish their season with a 10-6 record while tying a program best 5-1 record in CCIW play. North Central set a program record for goals in a single season (221) while ranking second in assists (109) and points (330). Their seven All-CCIW selections tied a single season program record with seven while having Herubin and Dylan Mlinarich named Co-Defensive Players of the Year for the first time in program history. 

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