The Forester men's lacrosse team closed out the regular season with a 9-5 triumph at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday.
Tied 4-4 with the Eagles at halftime, Lake Forest came out and scored four unanswered goals early in the third, including two in the first 65 seconds of the period. Freshman Caden Elias won the quarter's opening face-off, sprinted ahead 30 yards, and fired a shot past the Eagle goalie just a few seconds into the period for his second score of the season. Fellow freshman Chas Dean added to the lead less than a minute later. After faking a pass to create a little extra space, he blasted a shot into the lower half of the goal for his second tally of the game and 17th this year.
Freshman Bode Rubright found the upper-right corner of the goal at the 10:19 mark and then did it again at the 7:54 mark for his 18th score of the spring.
Northwestern netted the home team's only goal of the half with 3:32 to play in the third quarter and the score was 8-5 going into the fourth.
Forester sophomore John Casey, who reached the 30-goal mark on the season earlier in the contest, added his 31st on what turned out to be the final score of the afternoon with 12:56 remaining.
Freshmen Trip Gaston and Andrew Eisenman also scored for Lake Forest earlier in the game. It was the 17th of the year for Gaston and the first for Eisenman.
Lake Forest's Andrew Widlar was stellar at goalie, stopping 10 of the Eagles' 15 shots on goal, tying with Eisenman for the team lead with five ground balls, and added a caused turnover. He was active all over the defensive half of the field and even crossed midfield with the ball at one point.
The Foresters outshot the home team 38-24 and made up for winning just six of the game's 18 face-offs by committing just 25 turnovers to the Eagles' 33.
The victory lifted Lake Forest above the .500 mark at 7-6 overall this season and raised the first-year program finished 5-1 in Midwest Lacrosse Conference play. Northwestern is now 4-9 overall and 2-4 in the league.
The Forester will be the #2 seed in next week's MLC Tournament and host Cornell College in the semifinals on Wednesday. The winner will advance to the final on Saturday.
