Box Score Despite five unanswered goals in the final 16:42 the Augustana men's lacrosse team ran out of time and fell to Aurora 12-11 on Saturday, April 26^th at Thorson-Lucken Field. Head coach Kyle Hart's Vikings fell to 9-6 overall and 6-4 in the Midwest Lacrosse Conference while Aurora improved to 13-3 and finished conference play with an unbeaten record of 10-0.
 
Prior to the game Augustana honored its two seniors, Keegan Horack (Illinois Valley Central HS, Chillicothe, Ill.) and Zach McGinnis (New Trier HS, Kenilworth, Ill.).
 
In the opening period of play, Augustana outscored the visitors by a 5-4 margin with the go-ahead goal coming from Alexander Crescenti (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) with just nine seconds left. Aurora struck first in the opening minute but Kevin Gleason (Loyola Academy, Chicago, Ill.) found the back of the net just 31 seconds later to even the score 1-1. In the next couple minutes the teams traded goals again for a 2-2 tie before the Spartans scored two for a 4-2 lead with 7:30 remaining. The Vikings fought right back and scored the final three goals of the quarter.
 
The next 15 minutes were a completely different story with Aurora producing the only scores of the period to take an 8-5 halftime advantage. Hart's squad took eight shots in the period without a goal.
 
To open the second half the Spartans scored two more goals in the first 1:07 to take a 10-5 lead over the hosts. Less than a minute later Gleason put one home to pull the blue and gold within four with 12:58 to go in the third quarter. Aurora tallied the next two scores at the 7:20 and 2:38 marks to take a 12-6 lead but Augustana got the final say in the quarter when Jared Hawkins ( Everett HS, Everett, Wash.) scored with 1:42 on the clock.
 
Augustana entered the final stanza down 12-7 and made a contest out of it when it held the visitors scoreless in the period. Gleason scored the first two goals in the quarter to pull Augustana within three with 5:15 left. Hawkins put away his third goal of the day at the 4:23 mark to put the Vikings down just two and Jesse Nagelberg (St. Charles East HS, St. Charles, Ill.) scored with :53 left on the scoreboard to pull Hart's unit within a single goal.  Augustana battled for the final 53 seconds and fired a few shots but could not connect and went down by a 12-11 final.
 
Gleason led the Augustana offense with four goals and now has a team-high 39 tallies on the season. The sophomore also had an assist on the afternoon. Hawkins finished the day with three scores and a pair of assists. Nagelberg found the back of the net twice while Colin Haley (St. Charles East HS, St. Charles, Ill.) finished with a goal and an assist. Crescenti also scored once.
 
Aurora outshot the Vikings by a lopsided 44-29 margin. The Spartans also held the advantage in ground balls with a 41-30 mark. Taylor McGinnis (New Trier HS, Kenilworth, Ill.) led Augustana with five ground balls. The hosts had 20 turnovers to Aurora's 21. Scott Davis (St. Thomas Aquinas HS, Overland Park, Kan.), Zach McGinnis, and Andrew Jurewicz (St. Charles East HS, St. Charles, Ill.) each caused two Spartan turnovers.
 
Jack Peters (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.) played all but the final 43 seconds in the net for Augustana and had 12 saves in the outing including two in the final quarter when the Vikings shutout Aurora. Cody Burgdorff (Peak-to-Peak HS, Lafayette, Colo.) got the nod for the final seconds of the contest.
 
The home match-up with Aurora wrapped up the regular season for the Vikings who clinched the final spot in the MLC conference tournament. On Wednesday, April 30^th Hart's team will travel to Aurora for another chance at the Spartans, who are the top seed in the tournament.