The Forester men's lacrosse team avenged one of its losses from 2022 on Saturday, defeating Benedictine University 12-3 on Farwell Field.
Despite missing two of Lake Forest's first five games, junior John Casey took over the team lead in goals after scoring five times on Saturday and raising his season total to 15. Freshman Brendan Herbert set up three scores and now leads the team with 11 assists and 24 points.
Sophomore Chas Dean gave the home team the early advantage three-and-a-half minutes into the contest. After the Eagles tied the score with 4:03 on the first quarter clock, the Foresters regained the lead on a score by freshman Mario Florio less than a minute later. Casey then struck for the first time on the day and Lake Forest was ahead 3-1 at the end of the period.
Benedictine closed to within one just 75 seconds into the second period but did not score again in the next 30 minutes. Casey restored the two-goal edge two minutes later. The next two scores came from Herbert and senior Bobby Ojascastro who took turns assisting each other. Freshman Ryan Dousevicz and Casey added to the lead in the final 100 seconds of the half, which ended with the home team ahead 8-2.
The only goal of the third period came from Forester freshman Grant Pedersen.
The Eagles' scoring drought ended with 13:22 to play in the game but they did not strike again. Casey's fourth and fifth goals of the day and Herbert's second closed out the scoring.
The Lake Forest defense was once again led by sophomore Conor Murphy, who accounted for six of the team's 19 caused turnovers. Sophomore goalie Andrew Widlar stopped 9 of 12 shots on goal in the game's first 52 minutes and freshman Jacob Lipson added two more saves in the final eight.
The Foresters are now 5-0 and have outscored opponents 76-17 so far this year. Benedictine fell to 0-3.\
Lake Forest will host Carthage College Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.