by Eric Willuweit

Chicago, Ill. - On a chilly and windy Wednesday night at Stuart Field, the Illinois Tech men's lacrosse team fell behind early and often to Aurora University, trailing 9-0 at halftime en route to an 18-6 defeat to the Spartans in a conference matchup. The Scarlet Hawks dropped to 3-5 overall, and 0-2 in NACC play. The Spartans improved to 6-4 overall and start conference play 1-0.

The Spartans came at the Scarlet Hawks with a deep and balance scoring attack. Aurora had 11 different players score goals in the match, including five players who scored two goals each, and Jimmy Gorecki pacing the Spartans with three goals.

After being shut out in the first half, the Scarlet Hawks came to life in the third quarter, scoring five goals. Aidan Gans broke the ice at 13:18 with an unassisted tally. The Hawks would string together three consecutive goals midway through the quarter, with Ryan Arbour (9:09 - unassisted), Gans (7:54 - unassisted) and Jackson Brass (7:06 - unassisted) cutting the Illinois Tech deficit to 11-4. Brass would add another tally with 3:08 remaining in the quarter to pull the Hawks within nine at 14-5. Reed Tangeman closed out the scoring in the match with a man-up goal at the 3:53 mark (assist Alexander Stokrp) of the fourth quarter.

Up Next

The Scarlet Hawks will travel to Madison, Wis. on Saturday for a 3:30 PM CT matchup with conference foe Edgewood.