DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque men's lacrosse team began their 2023 season against Aurora University from the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Aurora was able to open with a quick lead, but the Spartans were able to rally off four straight goals to take the lead in the second quarter. Aurora would then have a strong second half as they finished the game with a 14-8 victory over the Spartans. 

After Thursday's big snow storm, today's game against Aurora was on the fence, but after the field was able to get cleared off quickly the Spartans were ready to begin the 2023 men's lacrosse season. 

Within the first minute of the opening quarter, Aurora got the scoring started to take a 1-0 lead. Less than three minutes later, they struck again going up 2-0. The Spartans would finally get into the scoring column off a Tyler Johnson goal off an assist from Aidan Culligan to cut the Aurora lead in half 2-1. After their first goal it seemed to have sparked an energy into the Spartans offense as they began the second quarter with three straight goals by Ben Farraday, Aiden Ennett, and Culligan in just over three minutes of action to take a 4-2 lead. The Spartans would hold a 5-3 lead with just under a minute left, but Aurora will score goals with 40 seconds left and with a mere one second left to go into the half knotted at 5-5. 

Out of the intermission, Aurora would score four unanswered goals in the third quarter to take a 9-5 lead heading to the fourth. Sam Todd would score an unassisted goal with 13:53 left in the quarter to cut the deficit to three at 9-6. That would be the closest the Spartans would get the rest of the game after Aurora tacked on five more goals whereas the Spartans found the back of the net two more times. 

Johnson and Todd led the way with two goals each for the Spartans and four other Spartans added a goal. Culligan assisted on three goals to add to his lone goal for a team high four points. Defending Midwest Lacrosse Conference Defensive Player of the Year began his sophomore season with 10 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers. 

The Spartans were out shot by Aurora 29-39 including 18-25 in the shots on goal. The Spartans forced five more turnovers than they committed in the loss. The Spartans successfully cleared 22-26 (84.6%) clears this afternoon. A strong faceoff man for Aurora only allowed the Spartans to win seven of the 26 faceoff attempts. 

The Spartans open the season 0-1 overall. 

Up Next
The Spartans will travel to Memphis, Tenn. for games on March 2 against Rhodes College at 7:00 p.m. and then again on March 4 at 11:30 a.m. against Albion College in a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament game.