AURORA, Ill. – After playing even with Aurora through the first period, Augustana couldn't keep up over the final three quarters of the match and the final result on Wednesday, March 20 was a 13-5 loss to the Spartans in Aurora, Illinois in a non-conference men's lacrosse battle. A goal by senior Lee Whorwell (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) tied the match at 4-4 with just eight seconds remaining in the first quarter.
 
Early in the second quarter Aurora went on top 5-4 on a goal by Kellen Moczynski at 13:55 but head coach Dan Torie's Vikings answered with a goal by freshman Travis Hastings (Englewood HS, Littleton, Colo.) at 13:22 with Whorwell collecting the assist.
 
That would be the last time the Vikings hit the nets, however as Aurora scored the final eight goals of the game to stay undefeated at this point of the season with a perfect 4-0 record. Augustana dropped to 2-5 on the year.
 
The Vikings scored first with sophomore Trever Moore (Naperville Central HS, Naperville, Ill.) scoring unassisted at 14:09. Aurora tied things at 1-1 with a goal by Joseph Dey but Augustana hit the back of the nets twice in a row to go up 3-1. Whorwell scored at 10:17 with an assist going to sophomore Jack Preston (Morton HS, Morton, Ill.) and then junior William Reece (Hudson HS, Hudson, Wis.) tallied at 7:32 with Hastings getting the assist. That made it 3-1.
 
Aurora scored three straight with Moczynski getting the first goal at 5:05 and then Josh Boyko scoring twice at 4:09 and 3:28 to give the home team a 4-3 lead. That led to Whorwell just beating the clock at the end of the first quarter to tie the game at 4-4.
 
Whorwell scored two goals and had one assist to lead the Vikings. The statistics were fairly even in terms of shots as Aurora led 38-35 and the Spartans were also on top in terms of ground balls (35-29). Junior Tommy Angelos (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) led the team in ground balls with nine as he came in and played the final three quarters in goal. He recorded nine saves as well. Freshman John Calabrese (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.) collected six ground balls and won seven face-offs.
 
Augustana will be in action again on Saturday, March 23 at Beloit.