Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan scored five straight goals to wipe out what had been a 6-5 Augustana lead and went on to a 21-13 victory over the Vikings in a CCIW Tournament semifinal at Tucci Stadium Wednesday. Augustana dropped to 11-7 on the year, while the Titans advance to Saturday's championship game with a 12-4 record.
 
Senior Scott Davis (St. Thomas Aquinas HS, Overland Park, Kan.) scored off an assist from classmate Kevin Gleason (Loyola Academy, Chicago, Ill.) to put the visitors up 1-0 less than three minutes in. IWU answered with two goals in the next five minutes before senior Alexander Crescenti (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) knotted it at 2-all with an assist from Gleason at the 4:44 mark of the first. Titan Tim Smith and Crescenti traded goals and the quarter ended in a 3-3 tie.
 
The teams continued to trade goals to start the second. One by James Maibuecher gave the Titans a 4-3 lead and Crescenti answered a minute and a half later to tie it. After Smith put the hosts ahead again, the Vikings took the lead, scoring consecutive goals for the only time until the game's final two minutes. Tallies by Davis and Gleason gave Coach Dan Torie's club a 6-5 advantage with 8:36 to play before the half.
 
Less than a minute later, Jacob Perry scored to start IWU's 5-0 run. Smith finished it off with an assist from Maibuecher with 1:15 left in the half. Maibuecher also score twice in the spree. Crescenti scored off a Brady Welvaert (Holmen HS, Holmen, Wis.) assist with 45 seconds left, but the Maibuecher to Smith combination resulted in a Titan goal with 37 seconds left and the hosts led 11-7 at the break.
 
Gleason and IWU's Nick Winter traded goals to starter the third quarter and when Crescenti scored off a Gleason assist with 4:43 left in the period, Augustana was within 12-9. However, the Titans responded with four consecutive goals to go up 16-9 and the Vikings would get no closer than six the rest of the way.
 
IWU won the ground ball battle by a 55-39 margin and also claimed 21 of 38 faceoffs in the game. Augustana committed 22 turnovers, to 18 for the Titans.
 
Crescenti finished with six goals, pushing his school single-season record to 53 on the year. Gleason added a pair of goals and three assists. Senior Jerrell Collymore (Homewood-Flossmoor HS, Flossmoor, Ill.) won 15 of 26 faceoffs and led the Vikings with six ground balls. Senior Jack Peters (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.) made 11 saves in goal, but suffered the loss, falling to 11-7 on the year.