DUBUQUE, Iowa - On yet another cold and chilly night at Oyen Field, the University of Dubuque men's lacrosse team welcomed the North Central College (IL) Cardinals to town. What seemed like a battle between both teams through the first 30 minutes would turn in the second half as North Central put up eight of their 11 goals in the half to defeat the Spartans 11-6.
The Cardinals came into tonight's matchup with the Spartans 5-0 against them and have battled every year since 2017 (except for 2020 Covid year). The Spartans would look to change that, just like they did picking up their first ever win against Augustana a week ago.
In the first half, the Spartans would struggle to get the ball cleared onto their offensive end of the field going 6-15 on clears. This would lead to more opportunities for the Cardinals on their offensive end. The Spartans defense will hold their ground for a majority of the first half allowing only three goals in the opening half. The Cardinals grabbed their first two goals in the first quarter before the Spartans finally were able to get on the board in the beginning of the second quarter from
Kyle Hephner. The Cardinals would get another goal shortly after, but the Spartans trimmed the Cardinals lead back to one with 8:21 left before halftime after
Giovanni Silva stole the ball and scored in a matter of seconds. The Spartans trailed by a slim margin of 3-2 at the half.
Aidan Culligan would kickstart the Spartans to open the third quarter tying the game at 3-3 with 11:36 left in the third. The Cardinals would then use a stretch where they scored four unanswered goals in less than five minutes to lead 7-3. The Spartans would not be able to overcome that five minute stretch in the third as they couldn't put together a string of goals to get within striking distance again to close out the game.
Hephner and
Christian Melton led the team with three points both scoring a goal and each dishing out two assists.
Nikolas Wortman and
Ryan Doyle each snagged nine ground balls and Doyle led the team with four caused turnovers. Wortman went 15-21 on faceoffs. On his birthday,
George Smirl was in goal and collected 16 saves in the loss.
Up Next
The Spartans are now 3-6 overall and will have their first MLC game on Saturday, April 1 at Monmouth College with game time set for 3:30 p.m.
