CHICAGO—The Illinois Institute of Technology men's lacrosse team welcomed Beloit College to Stuart Field for a Tuesday-night showdown. History continued to be made for the Scarlet Hawks as they picked up their first win in program history with a 15-5 decision over the Buccaneers.
The Scarlet Hawks improve to 1-1, 1-1 MLC while Beloit falls to 1-3, 0-1 MLC.
"I was very proud of our team tonight and the execution from start-to-finish," said Illinois Tech head men's lacrosse coach Dan Sharbaugh. "The focus over the past week has been making good decisions and executing the game plan more efficiently and we definitely took major steps forward in that department. I think our situational lacrosse was much more on point tonight. I was really impressed with the poise and decision making we showed in some hectic areas."
The Scarlet Hawks and Buccaneers traded goals three times to open the game en route to a 3-3 score with 2:19 left in the opening quarter. Beloit's slim 13-man roster caught up to them as Illinois Tech outscored them 12-2 for the remainder of the contest. Despite the lopsided score, the Buccaneers nearly evened Illinois Tech in shots as they trailed them with a 42-39 margin.
Aidan Gans and Jonathan Sorg paced the Scarlet Hawks with a hat trick while Wedge Lazenby, Brennan Perez and Spencer Meace each netted a pair of goals. Lazenby and Perez also added two assists to their stat lines.
The Scarlet Hawks also held advantages in ground balls (24-13), face-offs won (15-9), clear percentage (21-26/15-24) and saves (16-11). Christopher Stone paced Illinois Tech in the face-off circle with a 13-of-21 figure. Zane Handy registered 14 saves over 54:44 of work in net for the Scarlet Hawks, while Quinn Olsson notched 11 stops in goal for Beloit.
"It's always nice to get a win for sure, but the way we accomplished it made it even more meaningful," said Sharbaugh. "We have a chance to get back out to practice tomorrow and get better for another conference game Friday night."
The Scarlet Hawks will host North Central University (Minn.) on Friday, March 13 at 6:00 p.m.