Fond du Lac, Wis. - Behind a dominant second quarter effort and solid goalkeeping by Zane Handy, the Illinois Tech Men's Lacrosse team downed host Marian University 9-4 in a NACC conference matchup Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Scarlet Hawks evened their NACC record at 2-2 while improving to 5-6 overall. The Sabres fell to 1-4 in conference play and 3-9 overall.

Ryan Arbour opened the scoring for the Scarlet Hawks a minute and a half into the match on an unassisted tally. Marian's Cole Hales-Main tied it at 7:09 of the first quarter, but Yano Porter (4:31) and Reed Tangemen (3:49) scored 42 seconds apart to give the Hawks a short-lived 3-1 lead. On the ensuing face-off, won by Marian, the Hawks where whistled for a pushing foul, and Marian's Finn Maloney responded with a man-up goal to cut their deficit to 3-2 before the first quarter expired.

The Scarlet Hawks again tallied in the first 90 seconds of a new period, as Brock Melanson scored unassisted at the 13:35 mark of the second quarter. Jackson Brass scored unassisted just over one minute later, and Tangemen added his second goal of the match at the 4:18 mark on the man-up to give the Hawks a 6-2 lead entering halftime. The Hawks outshot the Sabres 16-5 in the period.

The two teams traded goals in the third quarter. Maloney tallied his second of the match at 13:30 to cut the Marian deficit to 6-3. Jonathan Vitale responded for the Hawks with a goal at 9:14 on a feed from Yano Porter to push the Hawks lead back to four at 7-3 entering the fourth quarter.

Brass (10:00) and Melanson (2:33) scored their second goals of the match in the final quarter to boost the Hawks lead to 9-3. Maloney scored his third of the match with 1:46 remaining to cut the Marian deficit to 9-4, but that would be as close as the Sabres would get.

Scarlet Hawks Watch

• Tangeman, Melanson and Brass eached tallied two goals in the contest
• Brass and Henry Rankin paced the Hawks with five ground balls each; Melanson recovered four
• Rankin forced three turnovers to lead the Hawks
• Handy finished the match with 12 saves on 16 shots - a 75% save percentage

Sabres Watch

• Maloney scored three goals to lead Marian, and was three of four on shots on goal
• Casey Dare was 11-13 on face-offs, and recovered eight ground balls
• Ben Martin paced the Sabres with 10 ground balls

Inside The Box Score

• The Scarlet Hawks outshot the Sabres 46-30
• The Sabres held a 47-32 advantage in ground balls
• The Hawks were 25-27 in clear opportunities

Up Next

• The Scarlet Hawks return to Stuart Field on Tuesday, April 19th at 7pm CT when they host Concordia Chicago in a NACC matchup