by Eric Willuweit

Lake Forest, Ill. - A five goal period by Lake Forest College proved too much to overcome for the Illinois Tech men's lacrosse team, as the Scarlet Hawks fell to the Foresters 12-7 Wednesday night in a non-conference road matchup. The Scarlet Hawks suffered their first defeat of the season, and fell to 2-1 overall. The Foresters improved to 4-0 on the season.

From a defensive standpoint, the Scarlet Hawks were able to hold the Foresters to their lowest goal output of the season at 12, as Lake Forest came into the match averaging 17.33 goals per match.

First Quarter (Lake Forest 5 - Illinois Tech 1)

Lake Forest tallied the first four goals of the match in the first quarter, culminating with a Trip Gaston tally with a player up at 6:50. Aidan Gans answered for Illinois Tech 47 seconds later to get the Scarlet Hawks on the board. But Lake Forest would find the net with 1:21 remaining in the quarter to head into the second period leading 5-1.

Second Quarter (Illinois Tech 3 - Lake Forest 2)

Gans opened the scoring for Illinois Tech in the second quarter with a player-up goal at 11:37 to cut the Lake Forest lead to 5-2. The Scarlet Hawks would score the next two goals over the next five-plus minutes to close within one goal at 5-4. However, Lake Forest would answer with a pair of goals in the final minutes of the second quarter to take a 7-4 lead into halftime.

Third Quarter (Lake Forest 2 - Illinois Tech 0)

The teams would play scoreless in the first five-plus minutes of the third quarter before Lake Forest's Brendan Herbert scored a player-up goal on a feed from Gaston at 9:24 to extend the Lake Forest lead to 8-4. The Scarlet Hawks could not generate anything of note offensively in the third quarter, as they were outshot 15-4. A late goal by Lake Forest's Bode Rubright with eight seconds remaining in the third quarter proved to be a back-breaker, giving the Foresters a 9-4 lead heading into the final quarter.

Fourth Quarter (Lake Forest 3 - Illinois Tech 3)

Lake Forest would score the first three goals of the fourth quarter, culminating with a goal by John Casey at the 6:57 mark to extend their lead to 12-4. The goal by Casey closed out a 7-0 goal run by the Foresters, beginning in the final minutes of the second quarter. The Scarlet Hawks would tally the final three goals of the fourth quarter with three different players scoring over the final five-plus minutes of the match, but it was not enough to overcome their deficit.

Scarlet Hawks Standouts

• Gans had two goals and an assist on the evening.
• Jackson Brass scored once and had three assists.
• Reed Tangeman added a goal and an assist.
• Henry Rankin recovered 7 ground balls and caused 7 turnovers.
• Zane Handy had 12 saves in the contest.

Foresters Watch

• Casey led the Foresters with 4 goals.
• Gaston added 3 goals and 3 assists, while recovering 2 ground balls.
• John O'Reilly recovered 7 ground balls.

Inside The Box Score

• Lake Forest outshot Illinois Tech 45-28.
• The Foresters had 45 ground balls to 32 for the Scarlet Hawks.
• Lake Forest won 16 of 23 draws.
• Lake Forest was successful on 20 of 21 clear attempts; the Scarlet Hawks cleared 21-27 opportunities.

Up Next

The Scarlet Hawks will be off for the next ten days before they travel to Minnesota to take on Northwestern-St. Paul on Saturday, March 11th at 1:00 PM in a non-conference road match.