The Lake Forest College men's soccer team was edged out 3-2 by visiting North Central College on Tuesday. Forester senior Hugh Watanabe scored to tie the game with 16:12 remaining but a late goal by the Cardinals spoiled the comeback.
Watanabe's goal was his second of the season. Junior Dylan Hartman started the play by carrying the ball up the left side of the field. His cross found freshman Seton Trostle in the box and Trostle tapped the ball to Watanabe on his left for the score.
Hartman also also began a series of crisp passes that set up the Foresters' first goal of the contest. He dribbled the ball toward the middle of the field from the left side and passed to sophomore Ellis Rutili. Rutili played the ball up to freshman Cesar Sandoval who cut in from the right sideline and crossed the ball to Trostle in front of the goal. Trostle kicked in his first career score with 6:04 to play in the first half.
North Central got on the board first with a goal just 87 seconds into the game and doubled the lead with another score at 23:36.
Both teams attempted seven shots in the first half and the Cardinals had a slight 8-7 edge in the second.
The Foresters' fifth one-goal loss in the last six games dropped the team's overall record on the season to 2-6-0. The Cardinals are now 5-2-1.
Lake Forest's next eight games will be against fellow Midwest Conference members, beginning Saturday at Lawrence University. The two-time defending league champion Foresters will put their current 1-0-0 MWC record on the line at 1:00 p.m.
