The Lake Forest College men's lacrosse team posted a 16-14 victory at the University of Dubuque on Saturday in a match-up of the top two teams in last year's Midwest Lacrosse Conference standings and the 2023 MLC Preseason Coaches Poll.
Forester senior Bobby Ojascastro doubled his previous career-high with six goals in the contest. He was one of six players on the team to score in the first quarter, which ended with the visitors ahead 6-1.
Ojascastro also accounted for two of Lake Forest's three goals in the second but the Spartans netted five in the period, making it a 9-6 game in favor of the Foresters at halftime.
Dubuque tied the game with three straight scores to start the third quarter and, after Ojascastro's fourth of the day, the home team scored twice more to take an 11-10 lead with 6:18 to play in the period. Ojascastro tied the score a minute-and-a-half later and the Foresters regained the lead on a goal from sophomore Bode Rubright with 3:18 on the clock. The second score of the game and 16th this season for freshman Ryan Dusevicz gave Lake Forest a 13-11 advantage but Dubuque closed back to within one on the game's only man-up goal with 30 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Ojascastro restored the visitors' two goal lead with his his sixth of the afternoon and 19th this spring at 10:06 in the fourth and sophomore Trip Gaston's 17th of the season made the score 15-12 with 7:57 left. The Spartans scored at the 5:24 mark but Rubright answered 76 seconds later with his second of the game and 24th this year. The home team closed back to within two with 1:22 remaining but got no closer.
Junior John Casey joined Dousevicz and Rubright with two goals in the game, raising his team-high total this season to 28. Freshman Brendan Herbert added his 25th of the year, sophomore Chas Dean his 12th, and freshman Grant Pedersen his fourth.
Lake Forest sophomore Jack Gillard had a game-high five caused turnovers while classmate Conor Murphy added four to go with a team-high seven ground balls.
Forester sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Widlar made 11 saves in the contest, including five in the final 15 minutes.
The victory was the second in as many MLC games for Lake Forest and the team is now 8-4 overall. Dubuque fell to 5-7 overall and 1-1 in the league.
The Foresters will travel to fellow MLC member Monmouth College next Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. start.
