Sophomore defenseman Ryan Kruss and freshman forward Austin Aksoy scored their first career goals in the Lake Forest College men's hockey team's 7-1 victory over Aurora University at home Saturday night.
Seven different Foresters scored in the contest, beginning with sophomore forward Bron Loiselle at the 4:32 mark of the opening period. His ninth score this season was assisted by sophomore defenseman Luke Meade and forward Cody Guidorzi.
The home team added three more scores in the second. Freshman defenseman Connor Duncan netted his third goal of the season at 5:18. Guidorzi earned his second assist of the night on the power play score. Kruss then got into the scoring column at 10:37 with senior defenseman Travis Hill and forward Jack Lewis assisting on the play. Sophomore forward Drew Cleereman made the score 4-0 with a minute to play in the period. His third score this season was set up by sophomore forward Vito Aluia.
Cleereman recorded an assist on Lake Forest's first goal of the third period. It was the third score of the year by freshman defenseman Zach Feldman. The score was 5-1 when the teams combined for four minor penalties, two majors, and a pair of disqualifications with less than a minute remaining. Hill and Aksoy tacked on power play goals for the Foresters in the final 30 seconds with Kruss assisting on both scores. Senior forward Justin Pelock also set up Hill's third goal of the year and junior forward Charlie Izaguirre helped set up Aksoy's tally.
Lake Forest had an 8-3 edge in shots on goal in the first period and a 16-4 advantage in the second. Aurora outshot the home team 11-10 in the game's final 20 minutes.
Forester sophomore goaltender Louis-Philippe De Courcy made 17 saves and earned the victory in his first career start.
Lake Forest improved to 11-9-0 overall and 7-8-0 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play this season while Aurora fell to 4-15-1 overall and 4-10-1 in the league. The same two teams will face off again in Aurora at 4:00 Sunday afternoon.