By Jami Sponaugle

Grand Rapids, Mich. - On the road, the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks men's lacrosse team competed in a non-conference contest on Tuesday night against the Calvin University Knights. The Hawks (2-0) were able to come home with a 11-9 victory over the Knights (1-1). Although the Knights started the game off strong with back-to-back-to-back goals, the Hawks were able to come back behind a hat-trick performance from both Ryan Arbour and Jonathan Vitale to secure the victory.

First Quarter (Illinois Tech 3 - Calvin 4)

• Calvin got on the board first with a goal from Christian Coler at 11:22 off a Nick Griffith assist.

• Chase Sparling followed with another goal for the Knights at 10:39 from a Josh Newhouse assist.

• Christian Coler then got the Knights third goal and his second of the contest off a Newhouse assist with 9:39 left in the first quarter. 

• Spencer Meace put the Knight on the board with an unassisted goal at the 8:26 mark. 

• In a man-up situation, Ryan Arbour scored his first goal of the contest, and the Hawks second off a Jackson Brass assist at the 5:20 mark. 

• Arbour then tied the game at 3-3 with a goal at 4:48 in another man-up situation off an Aidan Gans assist. 

• With 52 seconds remaining in the quarter, the Knights took a 4-3 lead with a goal from Brandon Carpenter.

Second Quarter (Illinois Tech 5 - Calvin 1)

• Once again in a man-up situation, the Hawks scored. This time, Brass found the back of the net off a Vitale assist at 13:18 on the clock to tie the game at 4-4.

• The Hawks then took their first lead of the contest when Vitale scored his first goal at 7:49 from an Arbour assist. 

• Just 29 seconds later, the Knights tied the game at 5-5 from a Newhouse goal. 

• The Hawks then took the lead for the rest of the contest after Brass scored for the second time from a Jaefer Breault assist with 5:39 left in the quarter.

• 18 seconds later, the Hawks scored again. Vitale scored his second of the game after receiving the ball from Juan Bohorquez.

• Vitale answered again for the Hawks at 4:29 to record his hat-trick and to give the Hawks a 8-5 lead. Brass assisted the goal, which was the last goal before halftime.

Third Quarter (Illinois Tech 2 - Calvin 2)

• It was a slow start coming out of halftime. With 9:50 on the clock, Gans notched his second of the game to give the Hawks a 9-5 lead. 

• The Knights scored their first of the quarter at the 5:39 mark with a goal by Thomas Smith.

• Smith then scored another with 45 seconds remaining in the quarter. 

• With just 8 seconds on the clock, Gans found the goal for the second time to give the Hawks a 10-7 lead at the end of the third quarter. 

Fourth Quarter (Illinois Tech 1 - Calvin 2)

• Nick Griffith scored for the Knights at 12:48 to start the fourth. 

• In a man-up situation at 11:14 Coler scored his third of the game to record a hat-trick and to put the Knights within 1 as the Hawks led 10-9.

• The final goal of the game came with 4:50 remaining when Yano Porter assisted Arbour for his third goal of the game to secure a hat-trick and seal the Hawks 11-9 victory. 

 Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Arbour and Vitale both recorded a hat-trick to lead the Hawks in goals. Arbour finished with 6 shots total while all 3 of Vitale's shots ended in a goal. Both Arbour and Vitale had one assist during the contest. 

• Aidan Gans and Jackson Brass both had 2 goals. Gans finished with 8 shots total while Brass had 6. Brass led the team in assists with 2 while Gans had 1. 

• Spencer Meace had 1 goal off of 4 shots. 

Knights Standouts

• Christian Coler led the Knights with a hat-trick and ended the game with 5 shots. Coler tallied 4 ground balls. 

• Thomas Smith followed with 2 goals off a team high of 8 shots. 

• Nick Griffith, Chase Sparling, Braden Carpenter, and Josh Newhouse all notched one goal during the contest. Newhouse finished with 2 assists and Griffith picked up 1. 

Inside the Box Score

• The Hawks recorded 24 ground balls while the Knights recorded 41.

• The Knights committed 26 turnovers while the Hawks committed 18.

• Both sides were pretty even on shots, with the Knights slightly edging the Hawks 36-35.

Head Coach Dan Sharbaugh Comments

"I am very proud of the effort from our team tonight. There was a lot of shifting logistics in the past 36 hours and we handled it well. It wasn't a pretty game but we brought a toughness and focus that was very exciting to see. There is a lot to build off of tonight and it was fun to get a positive outcome."

Up Next

The Hawks have a slight break before returning back to action on Wednesday, March 1, when they take on Lake Forest College. The contest is set to take place at 3:00p.m. in Lake Forest, Ill.