Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Scoring goals in bunches, the Augustana men's lacrosse team picked up a crucial College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin road victory on Wednesday, April 22 in Bloomington, Illinois over Illinois Wesleyan. The Vikings beat the Titans 11-7 to move to 12-3 overall and 4-0 in league play heading into the final game of the regular season.
 
The scoring came in streaks as Augustana went up 4-0 by the end of the first quarter, allowed a pair of Illinois Wesleyan goals early in the second but scored three straight to take a 7-2 with less than three minutes left before intermission. The Titans scored a goal at 1:42 and then added three more early in the third to cut the margin to 7-6. At this point the Vikings scored the game's next four to make it 11-6 before Wesleyan tallied at 6:06 of the fourth to account for the final score of 11-7.
 
Junior Kevin Gleason (Loyola Academy, Chicago, Ill.) scored an unassisted goal before the game was two minutes old to stake the visitors to an early 1-0 lead. Junior Scott Davis (St. Thomas Aquinas HS, Overland Park, Kan.) then tallied three of his six goals in the game to make it 4-0. His first score came at 10:06 with an assist going to Jared Hawkins (Everett HS, Everett, Wash.) and Gleason assisted on the next two at 5:54 and 5:07 respectively.
 
After Illinois Wesleyan scored twice to make it 4-2, Hawkins tallied off an assist by freshman Nick Zielinski (Huntley HS, Huntely, Ill.) at 6:22 of the second. Davis nailed his fourth goal at 5:21 with Hawkins assisting and Zielinski scored off a feed by senior Colin Haley (St. Charles East HS, St. Charles, Ill.) with 2:58 to play to make it 7-2.
 
Gleason came to the rescue with a pair of unassisted goals after the Titans closed the gap to 7-6 with 7:10 to play in the third on a goal by Nick Winter. Gleason scored with 3:06 left in the third to make it 8-6 and then ripped a shot with 11:19 left in the fourth to bump the advantage to 9-6. Davis scored the last two goals at 8:21 and 7:22 respectively to make it 11-6 and both came on assists by Haley.
 
Davis had six goals and Gleason had three and two assists to help lead the offense. Hawkins had a goal and two assists and Haley ended the game with three assists.
 
The Vikings held a slight advantage in shots (31-27) but were successful on 13 of 14 clear attempts.
 
Junior goalkeeper Jack Peters (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.) picked up 11 saves and was credited with the victory. He had four ground balls as did Haley and senior Jeremy Gottardo (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.).
 
Augustana will close out the regular season with a 4:00 p.m. game at Carthage in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Saturday, April 25. The winner of that contest will clinch the CCIW championship and will host the conference tournament, which will begin next week.