Contact: Tyler Bremner, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Results

Apr. 23, 2024 – The North Central College men's lacrosse team shattered the program record for most goals, assists, and points scored in a single game in their rout of Augustana College, 30-10.

The Vikings (4-8, 1-2 CCIW) were put on the back foot early as Rylan McQueary set up Luke Illgen for the first score of the game just 29 seconds in. The Cardinals (10-2, 2-1 CCIW) kept pace as Joey D'Cunha, Illgen, and Luke Paris combined for three more goals to take an early lead at 4-0 with 8:53 left in the first period. Augustana fired their first goal off under two minutes later as Elijah Graesser snuck one past Aidan Murphy. North Central doubled their effort soon after, forcing two goals between Bennett Leach and Illgen. Brady Holtz would score last for the Vikings with 3:45 to go cutting the Cardinal lead to four.  North Central tripled the effort this time as Charlie Snyder, Illgen, and Tom Eberhardt pushed the Cardinals to 9-2 to end the first period.

The second period saw North Central pull ahead by a combined twelve goals to Augustana's five. Starting the period Jake Paris and Eberhardt both scored in the first 60 seconds followed by a goal from the Vikings' Holtz. McQueary and Illgen took notice and scored once each in response putting the Cardinals up, 13-3. Carson Ghys scored next for Augustana with 11:16 left. It was another two minutes until Dalton Lutz scored a goal to spark an unanswered seven-goal run with scoring action from Illgen, Paris, Zach Kuyava, Ty Nagy, and D'Cunha to lap the Vikings by 20-4 with four minutes to go. Augustana got moving quickly firing off three goals between Jack Connolly and Holtz with only a single-goal response from the Cardinals' Jude Vitale making the score 21-7 into halftime.

North Central got rolling again only 27 seconds into the third quarter as Aidan Delcalzo scored to keep the pressure on. After a relay of offensive possessions, Holtz found room again for the Vikings putting the score at 22-8 with 11:15 left. The Cardinals' defense settled in for the next three minutes until Graesser found room with a setup from Connolly inching Augustana within 13. The Cardinals rallied to put up four unanswered goals to end the period between Vitale, Leach, Mason Russo, and Delcalzo to break the standing single-game scoring record of 25 goals which was set in the inaugural season.

With the score at a staggering 26-9, the fourth period would see the longest scoring drought of the game as seven minutes ticked by until Vitale started another unanswered four-goal run as Lutz, Leach, and Nagy followed suit. Holtz scored one last time for the Vikings to seal the score at a walloping, 30-10.

In total, the Cardinals broke the program's single-game record for total goals (30), assists (22), and points (52). Illgen led the offense with six goals and two assists while Dylan Andersen led the defense with two caused turnovers and three groundballs. In goal, Murphy secured the win facing just under 27 minutes of action securing five saves.

North Central travels to Elmhurst University Saturday in a matchup that could decide home-field advantage for the beginning of CCIW tournament competition. Find the full schedule here.

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