Chicago, Ill. - After a 1-4 start to the season through non-conference play, the Illinois Tech men's lacrosse found themselves back at .500 after winning their first three conference games. On Saturday afternoon, they had a chance to extend their conference winning streak to four games with a win over visiting Lawrence University. The Scarlet Hawks built a 10-3 lead late into the fourth quarter and wound up surviving five unanswered goals from the Vikings over the final four and a half minutes for a 10-8 victory. The Scarlet Hawks improved to 5-4 overall and to 4-0 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play. The Vikings fell to 1-3 in conference play and to 3-6 overall.

The Hawks staked out to a 3-0 after the opening quarter on goals by Diego Sosa, Connor Montgomery and Logan MacLean. Sosa and Jackson Brass adding tallies in the second quarter to open up a 5-0 lead for the Scarlet Hawks before the Vikings' Robbie Spielman scored with just under six minutes remaining in the quarter to give Lawrence their lone goal of the opening half, and cut their deficit to 5-1.

The Scarlet Hawks started out strong in the third quarter, with Sosa scoring a pair of goals sandwiched around a Brass tally to give Illinois Tech an 8-1 lead. The Vikings would respond with two goals over the final two and a half minutes of the third quarter to cut their deficit to 8-3 entering the final quarter. 

After a scoreless first five-plus minutes of the fourth quarter, the Hawks extended their lead to 10-3 on on goals by Montgomery and Will Von Eyser at the 9:28 and 7:48 marks, respectively. Over the final four and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, five different Vikings scored goals, including Brody Herr with 26 seconds remaining, to cut the Scarlet Hawks' lead to 10-8. Despite the late rally, the Hawks were eventually able to regain possession and run out the clock to secure the victory.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Diego Sosa scored 4 goals on 9 shots, 6 on goal, converting on 2 man-up opportunities while recovering 1 ground ball. Sosa has now scored 9 goals over his last 2 matches and 14 goals over his last 4 matches played
• Jackson Brass with 2 goals and 3 assists for a team-leading 5 points on the afternoon, to go along with 1 ground ball
• Connor Montgomery with a pair of goals on 6 shots, with 1 ground ball
• Will Von Eyser with a goal and an assist and 1 ground ball
• Owen Silverman with 5 ground balls and a team-leading 3 caused turnovers
• Kyle Johnson with 11 saves and 5 ground balls

Inside The Box Score

• Robbie Spielmann led Lawrence with 3 goals on 6 shots, while adding 2 ground balls
• Cody Brekke recovered 8 ground balls and was 9-14 in the faceoff circle
• Lawrence goalkeeper Gavin Reiter recorded 14 saves
• Illinois Tech outshot the Vikings 41-34
• Lawrence was 1-5 with the man advantage; Illinois Tech was 2-5

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks start the first of their two games in Wisconsin this week with a match at NACC foe MSOE in Milwaukee on Wednesday evening at 7:00pm.