MINNEAPOLIS, MINN – In Saturday's mid-day battle at North Central University [0-11 overall], the University of Northwestern men's lacrosse team captured a 12-4 victory over the Rams. With the win, the Eagles improve to 5-6 on the season.

UNW came out swinging for the nets, building a 4-1 lead by the close of the first frame. As both teams exchanged goals throughout the second period, Northwestern would take the lead [5-3] at intermission.

The strong momentum carried over into the final two quarter, with the Eagles outscoring the Rams 4-1 in the third and 3-0 in the fourth, to help secure a 12-4 win over the home team.

UNW's Keller Stephens (Lino Lakes, Minn./Mounds View ) had a strong performance on the day's competition, netting three goals for UNW, while also collecting one assist and two ground balls. Following suit, Gavin Welch (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo), Noah Vander Kooi (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo), and Bryce Schmidgall (Hancock, Minn./Hancock) each sank two goals on the contest. Welch also finished with four grounders and two caused turnovers, as Vander Kooi noted three ground balls and one assist.

Eric McCartan (Roseville, Minn./Roseville), Austin Shaw (Elk River, Minn./Elk River), and Derek Stone (Ramsey, Minn./PACT Charter) all played well, as they each added one goal, respectively.

On the defensive end, Goalkeeper Zach Shockencey (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater) recorded seven saves on the game, while Steven Soto (Kenosha, Wis. /Bradford) won an impressive 16-of-20 face offs for the Eagles.

As a team, Northwestern totaled 45 shots [23 SOG], 56 ground balls, and went 16-18 on clears.

The purple and gold will travel next to Northland College on Saturday, April 29, for their final contest of the season. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. A full recap following the evening matchup can be found at www.unweagles.com.