Chicago, Ill. - Wanting to erase the sting of a humbling loss the last time they played at Stuart Field, the Illinois Tech men's lacrosse team had to wait a little bit longer on Wednesday night when thunderstorms delayed the start of their conference-opener against Beloit. When play finally commenced, the Scarlet Hawks came out firing on all cylinders, as they overwhelmed the Buccaneers from the start en route to a 19-2 victory. The Hawks open Northern Athletics Collegiate Conferernce (NACC) play 1-0, and improved to 2-4 overall. Beloit starts conference play 0-1 and dropped to 3-2 overall.

Thirteen different Scarlet Hawks scored a goal on the evening, led by Jackson Brass, who tallied a hat trick on the evening and led all scorers with five points on three goals and two assists. Four players scored two goals each: Diego Sosa, Connor Montgomery, Alexander Stokrp and Will Von Eyser. 

How It Happened

• 1st Quarter - Illinois Tech 8 - Beloit 0: Brass opened the scoring in the game just 1:36 into the match with the first of his three goals, an unassisted tally. Marc Rebusi and Von Eyser would score the next two goals, giving the Scarlet Hawks a 3-0 lead just over four minutes into the match. Brass would score his second of the match at 8:41 on a feed from Jaeger Breault to open up a 4-0 Hawks' lead. Yano Porter, Jonathan Vitale, Stokrp and Breault would each score over the final six minutes of the quarter to give Illinois Tech the 8-0 lead after the opening frame.
• 2nd Quarter - Illinois Tech 12 - Beloit 1: The teams played scoreless for the first 5:28 of the second quarter before Brass completed his hat trick at 9:31, his 10th goal of the season, for a 9-0 lead. Stokrp would score his second of the match just over two minutes later for a 10-0 lead. 41 seconds later Sosa scored his first of the match, a man-up goal, on a feed from Brass for an 11-0 Scarlet Hawk lead. 35 seconds later Montgomery scored his first goal of the match, unassisted, to increase the Hawks' lead to 12-0. Beloit would finally get on the board with 41 seconds remaining in the quarter when Jordan Rice scored unassisted, closing their deficit to 12-1 at halftime.
• 3rd Quarter - Illinois Tech 14 - Beloit 1: The third quarter was a relatively tame quarter offensively, as the teams went scoreless for the first half of the quarter before Illinois Tech's Henry Rankin scored on a shot from midfield to open up a 13-1 lead for the Hawks. Sosa would score his second of the match at 4:37, with another assist from Brass, to put the Hawks up 14-1. That tally closed out the scoring in the third quarter.
• 4th Quarter - Illinois Tech 19 - Beloit 2: Montgomery would net his second of the match at the 12:40 mark of the fourth quarter to give Illinois Tech a 15-1 lead. Beloit's Rice would strike again at the 10:00 mark for his second of the match, cutting their deficit to 15-2. Illinois Tech would tack on four more goals to close out the scoring in the match, with Altan Brown, Micah Manookian, Von Eyser (his 2nd of the match) and Logan MacLean each scoring for the final margin of victory.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Jackson Brass led all scorers with 5 points, scoring 3 goals and 2 assists, with 11 total shots, while collecting 1 ground ball and causing 1 turnover
• Alexander Stokrp with 3 points on 2 goals and 1 assist, 3 shots on goal and 1 ground ball
• Yano Porter with 3 points on 1 goal and 2 assists, 2 shots on goal and 2 ground balls
• Connor Montgomery with 3 points on 2 goals and 1 assist with 4 shots on goal
• Will Von Eyser with 3 points on 2 goals and 1 assist with 2 shots on goal
• Diego Sosa with 2 goals on 3 shots on goal
• Altan Brown with 1 goal, 1 assist, 6 ground balls and 2 caused turnovers
• Canyon Kuchel went 7-9 on faceoffs with 5 ground balls recovered
• Duwayne Aikins went 5-6 on faceoffs with 6 ground balls recovered

Inside The Box Score

• Jordan Rice led Beloit, scoring each of their 2 goals
• Illinois Tech outshot Beloit 56-14
• Illinois Tech had a 43-15 advantage in ground balls
• Illinois Tech went 2-7 in man-up opportunities, while Beloit was 0-3

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks travel to Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday for a 1:00pm match with the Eagles in another NACC contest.