MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – After a gauntlet of an opening two games in Midwest Lacrosse Conference play, the University of Northwestern Men's Lacrosse team was able to settle in and earn its first conference win of 2024 on Saturday. The Eagles used a big first half scoring spurt to set the tone in a 15-11 road win at Cornell College to improve to 4-5 overall and 1-2 in the MLC.
Cornell scored two minutes in to take a brief 1-0 lead, but it would be the only lead the host would hold in the game. Northwestern tied the game just 45 seconds later when
Austin Lemke (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Saint Croix Lutheran Academy) found
Sam Moses (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) for a goal, then Moses gave UNW the lead 46 seconds after that, this time off a
Brenden Schuffenhauer (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) assist. The Rams tied the game up a minute later, but that's when the Eagles went on the big run that dictated how the rest of the game went.
Ryan Adkins (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville) and
Christian Mitchell (Oak Grove, Minn./PACT Charter School) both scored unassisted goals 37 seconds apart from one another to give Northwestern a 4-2 lead with 15 minutes in the rear view.
Khoa Vu (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) made it three straight UNW goals at the 12:55 mark in the second quarter, then Mitchell stretched the run to 5-0 with two more goals within 14 seconds of each other, one from Moses and the other from Schuffenhauer. His first-half hat trick made it 7-2 in favor of the Eagles. Cornell finally stopped the bleeding with a goal with 6:31 left in the half, but the Rams didn't have much time to celebrate as Moses achieved a hat trick of his own with 5:17 left, this time courtesy of a
Tyler Heyen (Big Lake, Minn./Big Lake) assist. Moses then showed a generous side to his game, assisting on a Schuffenhauer goal with 1:12 to go before half to extend the lead to 9-3. Cornell would go on to score in the closing seconds to make it 9-4 at the intermission.
The Rams scored the opening goal of the second half, but Vu answered with his second of the day via a Moses assist. The teams continued to go back and forth, as another Cornell goal was equalized by Moses once again finding Schuffenhauer for a score to make it 11-6. The hosts tacked on two more by the 5:05 mark to trim the deficit to three, but
Christian Mitchell (Oak Grove, Minn./PACT Charter School) put to rest any hopes of a comeback, scoring his fourth of the day with 3:44 remaining in the period. After another Cornell goal, Mitchell found Lemke for a score with 48 seconds on the clock to give Northwestern a 13-9 edge entering the final stanza.
The fourth quarter had considerably less action than the nine-goal third, but Lemke netted his second goal of the day 2:35 into the period. The Rams briefly cut UNW's lead to three with 5:07 left after a pair of goals, but Vu delivered the dagger with 1:24 remaining, giving the graduate student a hat trick and his team a huge conference road win by a 15-11 margin.
In a game that certainly didn't lack offensive production, Moses shone the brightest. The junior scored three times and dished out four assists. Mitchell was outstanding in his own right, scoring four goals and collecting three ground balls. Vu added three goals and Schuffenhauer two, in addition to two assists and seven ground balls. Lemke scored twice as well and added an assist. Adkins scored once, snagged a team-high eight ground balls and won 19 of 31 faceoffs.
Jared Schultz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) was a menace on the defensive end, causing four turnovers, while
Eli Olmscheid (Monticello, Minn./Monticello) tallied three.
Richard Hemric III (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) collected three ground balls and
Robert McHenry (Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) four, to go along with his 12 saves in cage.
The Eagles will return to non-conference play Wednesday as they travel to NAIA Clarke University for the penultimate regular season game. Faceoff is scheduled for 4:30 PM in Dubuque, Iowa.
