The Forester men's lacrosse team routed visiting Cornell College 18-4 on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Midwest Lacrosse Conference Tournament.
Sophomore Bode Rubright outscored the Rams by himself, netting five goals in the first half and raising his total on the season to 38. Sophomore Chas Dean finished with four scores and senior Bobby Ojascastro also had a hat trick with three. Dean now has 20 goals and Ojascastro 25 this spring.
Ojascastro started the scoring just 38 seconds into the contest and Rubright struck six seconds later. Dean's first and Rubright's second of the day put the home team on top 4-0 after just over five minutes po play. After Cornell got on the scoreboard, freshman Brendan Herbert added to the Foresters' tally and Ojascastro closed out the first quarter scoring.
Already ahead 6-1 after the opening period, Lake Forest outscored the Rams 7-0 in the second. Rubright accounted for three of the scores, Dean two, and team captains John Casey and Conor Murphy one apiece. Casey is tied with Rubright with a team-high 38 on the year and it was the first of the season for Murphy, who narrowly beat the halftime buzzer.
All three of the Foresters' third quarter goals occurred in the final three minutes as Dean, freshman Grant Pedersen, and sophomore Caden Elias added to the home team's total.
Cornell scored three of the final period's five goals with the Lake Forest scores coming from Ojascastro and sophomore Otto Baumann. It was the first career goal for Baumann, a long-stick midfielder.
The Foresters dominated possession in the game, thanks in part to freshman John O'Reilly winning 15 of 18 faceoffs. He and sophomore Jack Gillard shared game-high honors with eight ground balls apiece and Gillard led all players in the game with five of Lake Forest's 29 caused turnovers.
The victory raised the Foresters' record this season to 12-4 while Cornell's season ends at 5-12.
Lake Forest will host the University of Dubuque in the MLC Tournament Final on Saturday with the winner earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
