MONMOUTH, Ill. – The University of Northwestern men's lacrosse team traveled down to Illinois to take on the Monmouth College Scots on Saturday. The previous two meetings between the Eagles and Scots resulted in UNW winning both their first ever MLC Regular Season Championship and first ever MLC Tournament Championship in back-to-back weekends last May.
In this contest, Northwestern came out on top by rallying for six unanswered goals in the final quarter to take a 10-5 win, improving their all-time record against the Scots to 8-0 since their first ever meeting in 2017.
Monmouth opened the game with three consecutive goals in the opening quarter to take an early 3-0 lead. However, Northwestern responded in the second quarter as
Thomas Alderson (Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead) scored back-to-back goals to bring the Eagles within one.
Khoa Vu (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) evened up the game for UNW by scoring with just 1:05 remaining in the opening half. The Eagles and Scots entered halftime tied up at three goals apiece.
Northwestern broke the stalemate early in the third quarter to go up 4-3 on a
Sam Moses (Wasau, Wis./Wasau East) goal. The lead would be short lived as the Scots tied the game again three minutes later and then took the lead on a goal with 11 seconds remaining in the quarter.
UNW trailed 5-4 entering the final 15 minutes of regulation. Facing defeat, the Eagles responded with a dominant fourth quarter performance as the defense shut out the Scots and the offense took over the game. Moses scored twice early in the frame to complete a hat trick and retake the lead for Northwestern. Alderson then doubled the Eagles' lead with his second goal of the day. Moses then added another two goals to bring his total to a game-high five for UNW.
Joseph Will (Rice Lake, Wis./Rice Lake) put one final exclamation mark on the box score by scoring in the final two minutes to cap off a 10-5 win for Northwestern.
On defense,
Peyton La Mere (Holmen, Wis./Holmen) led the Eagles with three caused turnovers and five ground balls. In goal,
Robert McHenry (Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) had 12 saves for UNW.
Next up for Northwestern is a conference away game at North Central this upcoming Wednesday, April 20, starting at 4:00 P.M.
