MEQUON, Wis. – The Concordia Wisconsin men's lacrosse team picked up a key victory on Wednesday afternoon in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference standings. The Falcons handed Lake Forest its first-ever NACC loss with a thrilling 14-13 overtime victory.
The Foresters threw the first punch on Wednesday and held a 5-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the contest, but the Falcons did not fold.
Senior Max Esposito (Gaithersburg, Md.) started the scoring for the Falcons with 6:22 left in the quarter.
Two minutes later, junior Preston Meier (Owatonna, Minn.) found the back of the net.
The momentum turned to the Falcons when Preston Meier scored, and after a faceoff victory, sophomore Ben Birch (Grafton, Wis.) rushed down the field and scored seven seconds later.
Preston Meier tied the game with just two minutes left in the quarter off a pass from sophomore Tyler Husby (Eagan, Minn.).
The Falcons claimed the lead early in the second quarter with Tyler Husby scoring a man-up goal off an assist from sophomore Bryce Petersen (Waukesha, Wis.).
After a LFC goal, Bryce Petersen gave the Birds the lead once again off a Tyler Husby assist.
The Falcons closed the first half with a 2-0 run with goals from Preston Meier and Max Esposito, to take a 10-7 lead into halftime.
The Blue and White capitalized on two Lake Forest penalties and scored two man-up goals in the third quarter from Bryce Petersen and senior Caleb Ruger (Grafton, Wis.).
The Red and Black rallied with a 4-0 run to tie the game at 12.
Senior Gio Nowotarski (Reading, Pa.) broke the tie with 6:50 remaining off a crisp pass from Max Esposito.
The Foresters forced overtime when they scored with 1:49 left in regulation.
LFC won the opening faceoff to have the first crack at overtime, but senior Michael Lange (Brookfield, Wis.) forced a turnover and scooped up the ground ball. The Foresters earned another look at the Concordia net, but sophomore Travis Marquardt (Brookfield, Wis.) collected the key save.
Bryce Petersen found an opening and charged at the cage, and blasted the game-winning shot into the net with 1:21 left in overtime.
Lake Forest held a 44-39 advantage in shots on Wednesday.
The Falcons picked up 29 ground balls in the victory and were led by sophomore Jaxon Hill (Bismarck, N.D.) with eight.
The Birds also owned the faceoff circle on Wednesday, with junior Frank Trewyn (Mukwonago, Wis.) winning nine of 14 and Jaxon Hill winning 10 of 17.
Senior Zach Wilder (Midland, Mich.) led the flock with three forced turnovers.
Travis Marquardt had 12 saves in his third victory of the season.
The Foresters' five-game winning streak came to an end as they fell to 6-5 and 5-1 in the NACC.
The Falcons improve to 4-6 and 3-2 in NACC play.
Wednesday was the first overtime game for the Falcons since the 11-10 triple-overtime victory over Benedictine on April 8, 2023.
Concordia faces another tough test on Saturday at Dubuque.
