Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Associate Director of Athletics Communication, 630-637-5302
Rock Island, Ill. (April 25, 2026) - The North Central College men's lacrosse team (3-12, 2-3 CCIW) clinched a spot in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Tournament after a dominating 19-6 win over Augustana College (3-12, 0-5 CCIW) in its regular season finale.
Senior Ty Nagy led the way with a career-high eight goals and one assist, while Chase Odom and Seth Rosen each recorded two. Wyatt Hunt scored one goal while assisting on four. Dylan Ferreiro, Ben Kerkow, Gavin McBeth, Beckett Krause, Devon Manjarrez, and Chris Veal all recorded one goal in the win.
Alex Porter led the defensive effort with four caused turnovers and tallied three ground balls. Gavin Braley went 15-for-19 at the faceoff X and picked up a team-leading seven ground balls. Three Cardinal goalies made appearances in today's contest with Matthew Cranston getting the start and notching four saves, while Beck Hagen had two saves and Colton Porter snagged five.
Augustana scored first but North Central was quick to recover as Braley won the next faceoff and found Veal open on the left side to level the score early.
North Central utilized a long possession, taking five shots before Nagy landed the Cardinals' second goal of the game off the assist from Hunt. Nagy notched another goal off the next faceoff as Veal set him up for one outside the crease.
Alex Porter picked off an Augustana pass that set up another Cardinal scoring possession. Hunt took the initial shot that was saved by the Vikings' keeper, but Nagy was there for the scoop and score as the North Central moved ahead 4-1. Nagy added two more less than 30 seconds apart, giving the Cardinals a 6-1 edge. Shifting to a distributor role, Nagy dished it off to Odom with six seconds left in the opening period to carry a 7-1 lead into the second.
North Central didn't let up in the second period as Braley set up Hunt for a goal off the restart, and Odom bounced in another off the assist from Hunt in the first minute of play as North Central grew to a 9-1 lead. The Vikings stepped up their defensive effort after that, though, fending off the Cardinals for the next six minutes.
Rosen scored his first goal of the game off a quick pass from Hunt before Hunt gave Nagy the helper to give North Central a double-digit lead, 11-1. Augustana managed to break its scoring drought in the second period, putting up two goals with under five minutes left in the half. Rosen put away a goal with 2:49 on the clock after dropping his defender for a one-step shot. Ferreiro scored the Cardinals' final goal of the half on a point-blank look to regain North Central's 10-goal lead at the break, 13-3.
Both teams seemed to settle in after halftime, with Augustana scoring first under the 10-minute mark. North Central answered on a scoop-and-score from Manjarrez two minutes later. A caused turnover by Rohrer queued up a fast possession for the Cardinals as Kerkow charged upfield after the scoop, dumping it off to Nagy, who found Krause open on the opposite side for the 15-4 advantage.
Augustana notched the first goal of the final period just a minute into play. Three minutes later, North Central scored as Nagy recorded his seventh goal of the game thanks to an assist from Blaylock. Kerkow recovered a loose ball in the air and fired it in goal to go ahead 17-5. Nagy scored again with eight minutes to play, forcing a timeout before the reset. Augustana scored once more but it was senior
Gavin McBeth notching the final goal of the game through two defenders for the first goal of his career to seal the Cardinals' 19-6 victory.
With the win, North Central has claimed the final spot in the CCIW Tournament and will be the fourth-seed. The Cardinals will face top-seeded Elmhurst University at the Bluejays' Langhorst Field on Wednesday, April 29, for a CCIW semifinal matchup.
