The Lake Forest College men's lacrosse team hosted and defeated the University of Northwestern (Minn.) 11-3 on Saturday to finish the regular season in first place in the Midwest Lacrosse Conference standings.
The league title is the first in the history of the program.
The Foresters took an early lead when junior John Casey struck just 39 seconds into the contest. Lake Forest outshot the Eagles 11-2 in the first quarter but the score was still 1-0 when it ended.
Northwestern tied the game with 8:24 remaining in the second but the home team regained the lead just 50 seconds later on the 18th of the season for freshman Ryan Dousevicz. Additional tallies 43 seconds apart from sophomore Bode Rubright and Casey made the score 4-1 and the Foresters were gifted a fifth goal when a pass back to the Eagle goalie snuck past him and into the net. Freshman Grant Pedersen's sixth of the season finished off the 5-0 run to close out the quarter and Lake Forest led 6-1 at halftime.
Goals from Casey and Rubright in the third quarter gave the home team an 8-1 advantage going into the fourth. Casey netted his fourth of the game and team-high 37th of the year early in the fourth and Rubright completed his hat trick and raised his season total to 33 with 5:14 to play. Senior Bobby Ojascastro, who was honored along with classmate Winston Stock at halftime of their final regular season home game, added his 22 of the spring with 3:25 left on the clock. A pair of late goals for the visitors accounted for the final score of 11-3.
Lake Forest sophomore goalie Andrew Widlar stopped three of four shots on goal in the game's first 55 minutes and lowered his MLC-best goals against average on the season to 8.88.
Sophomore Conor Murphy was a force on the defensive end of the field, setting single-game program records with nine caused turnovers and a dozen ground balls. Rubright established a new career-high with seven ground balls while sophomore Jack Gillard matched his personal best with five caused turnovers.
The Foresters improved to 11-4 overall in 2023 and they finished the regular season with a league record of 5-0. Northwestern fell to 3-8 overall and 2-3 in the MLC.
Lake Forest will host Cornell College in the semifinals of the MLC Tournament on Wednesday and, if victorious, would also play the tournament final at home next Saturday.
