MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – University of Northwestern Men's Lacrosse traveled to Cornell College on Saturday afternoon for their conference opener. The Eagles defeated the Rams in a 10-6 final to open their Midwest Lacrosse Conference schedule with a victory.
Thomas Alderson (Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead) and
Connor Proshek (Rosemount, Minn./Rosemount) led UNW's attack with each scoring three goals for a pair of hat tricks.
Christian Mitchell (Oak Grove, Minn./PACT Charter School),
Austin Lemke (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Saint Croix Lutheran Academy),
Ryan Adkins (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville), and
Lucas Peters (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East) each added goals for the Eagles in the win.
Cornell jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening quarter, but the Eagles responded with five goals in the second quarter while shutting out the Rams to take a 5-2 lead into halftime.
The Rams scored the opening goal of the third quarter to cut the Eagles lead down to two goals, but UNW responded with a pair of goals to head to the final quarter up 7-3.
Cornell responded with back-to-back goals to open the fourth quarter to cut Northwestern's lead down to two goals again, but the Eagles outscored the Rams 3-1 the rest of the way to take the conference opener 10-6.
On defense,
Sam Moses (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) led Northwestern with four caused turnovers in the win.
Khoa Vu (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) and Lemke each had a game-high six ground balls for UNW. In goal,
Robert McHenry (Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) had eight saves to earn the win.
The Eagles won 13 of the 20 faceoffs with Adkins leading the way, winning 10-for-11 for Northwestern.
Brenden Schuffenhauer (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) added three faceoff wins for UNW.
Up next, Northwestern will return home to Reynolds Field to take on Monmouth College on Saturday, April 8 at 1:00 p.m.
