MONTGOMERY, Ill. – The Concordia Wisconsin men's lacrosse team returned to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament Finals on Saturday afternoon for the second consecutive season. The Falcons faced a familiar foe in the Spartans of Aurora. The Spartans defended their title and home turf on Saturday with a 14-9 victory.
The Spartans struck first on Saturday with two goals to open the scoring.
Coming out of a timeout, the Falcons scored when junior Preston Meier (Owatonna, Minn.) broke to his left and past a pair of defenders, scoring after he crashed the net.
The Falcons tied the game 31 seconds later with a man-up goal from Preston Meier from 12 yards out off a pass from senior Gio Nowotarski (Reading, Pa.).
The two teams finished the first quarter tied at one.
The Spartans broke the game open in the second quarter with an 8-0 run.
The Falcons did not fold and went on a 2-0 run in the final 66 seconds of the first half.
Sophomore Bryce Petersen (Waukesha, Wis.) scored from the right side off a pass from Preston Meier after he danced his way through the defense.
Preston Meier then scored with 25 seconds left in the half off a pass from senior Caleb Ruger (Grafton, Wis.) to cut the halftime lead to 10-4.
The Falcons carried the momentum for a majority of the third quarter and used a 3-0 run to start the frame to outscore Aurore, 4-2, in the quarter.
Senior Max Esposito (Gaithersburg, Md.) started the scoring with a wrap-around shot.
Bryce Petersen struck again with a goal right in front of the cage off a feed from Max Esposito.
Sophomore Tyler Husby (Eagan, Minn.) scored as he charged the net a minute later off a beautiful pass from Bryce Petersen to cut the deficit to 7-10.
After an Aurora goal, the Falcons marched down the field and scored 34 seconds later off the stick of Gio Nowotarski and an assist to Tyler Husby.
Aurora scored the final goal of the quarter to hold a 12-8 lead.
The Black and Blue scored early in the fourth quarter, and both defenses stood tall to minimize the scoring.
CUW scored in the final minute of the game when Bryce Petersen scored off a pass from Max Esposito.
The Spartans decided to add one more goal to the scoreboard with 17 seconds left.
Freshman Nolan O'Malley (Chicago, Ill.) had a career-high 18 saves on Saturday.
Sophomore Jaxon Hill (Bismarck, N.D.) won 11 of his 18 faceoffs.
The Falcons picked up 41 ground balls and were led by Nolan O'Malley with nine.
CUW would like to thank the senior class for all of the hard work over the past four years. The class qualified for all four NACC Tournaments and won 46 games.
Concordia Wisconsin closes the year with a 12-8 record.
