ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Northwestern men's lacrosse team took on the rival North Central Rams in a Wednesday afternoon contest. Dominant defense and high powered offense led the Eagles to a 21-3 victory over NCU. Northwestern improved themselves to a 2-7 record.
It was
Brenden Schuffenhauer (Circle Pines, Minn./Centennial) to get the scoring going as he scored the first goal of the game off of a pass from
Andrew Skoglund (Northfield, Minn./Homeschool) while
Khoa Vu (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) would score a goal of his own with 04:56 left on the clock. Less than 40 seconds later, a pass from
Lucas Peters (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East) would find a wide open
Joseph Will (Rice Lake, Wis./Rice Lake) who put away the goal.
Sam Moses (Wasau, Wis./Wasau East) would round out the scoring as UNW led 4-0 at the end of the first. The Northwestern defense only allowed one shot to come their way.
An explosive start to the second half saw Will score his second goal of the game while Skoglund found his second assist of the game.
Thomas Alderson (Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead) got his first goal of the game before
Bryce Schmidgall (Hancock, Minn./Hancock) also earned himself a goal thanks to a pass from Will. The Rams found the back of the net to stem the scoring outburst from the Eagles. However, the Peters to Will connection was too strong, as the pair combined again for Will's third goal and a hat trick. Peters found the final goal of the first half as he took it upon himself to find the back of the net. Northwestern held a 9-1 lead entering halftime.
Alderson and Peters both found their second goals of the game to start the second half. Another North Central goal would stop the momentum for a little before Northwestern saw themselves scoring six straight goals to extend their lead to 17-2. The Rams would find one more goal before the Eagles closed the game out scoring the final four as they took the game 21-3.
Alderson and Peters both scored four goals, Will had three, while Vu and
Jordan Larson (Crystal, Minn./Fourth Baptist Christian) had two. Schuffenhauer, Schmidgall,
Parker Schmidgall (Hancock, Minn./Hancock), Skoglund, Moses and
Alex Shamanovsky (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) each had one. The defense for UNW only allowed NCU to shoot the ball 12 times, only four of those approached the net.
Up next for the Eagles is a journey to Monmouth, Illinois to take on Monmouth College at 3:00 P.M. on Saturday, April 16.
