March 5, 2016 - The Concordia-Chicago men's lacrosse team began an Eastern road swing on Saturday with a non-conference game at Ohio Northern University. Although the host Polar Bears won the game 20-6, the Cougars showed evidence of lessons learned and progress made from the March 2 opener against Kalamazoo.

The Cougars were ready for action from the opening facroff. The Polar Bears opened the scoring in the first 90 seconds, but Cal Crawford (Stillwater, MN/Cretin-Derham Hall) evened the score less than a minute later as he tallied his third goal of the young season. Ohio Northern scored the next two goals, but Kyle Stock (Orland Park, IL/Sandburg) answered just 13 seconds after the second of ONU's pair with his second of the year. Crawfrord added the assist, the first in CUC's history, to bring the Cougars within 3-2 - all with the game barely four minutes old.

Ohio Northern looked to open up some room as they scored the next three goals, including a man-up goal following a CUC penalty, to boost their lead to 6-2. Jordan Loeffler (Orland Hills, IL/Sandburg) struck with 44 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. The Polar Bears followed with two quick tallies before the horn sounded, however, to make the score ONU 8, CUC 3 at the end of one quarter.

After the Polar Bears scored five minutes into the second quarter, Loeffler came back with his second goal at the 5:56 mark to make it a 9-4 game. However, the hosts closed the half strongly with a four-goal run that put the Cougars in a 13-4 deficit at the half.

The third quarter was the crusher for the Cougars. Ohio Northern scored two goals in the first three minutes and went on to a 7-0 run in the quarter, 11-0 total  following Loeffler's second-quarter goal. The Cougars scored the only two goals of the fourth, Loeffler completed a three-goal night with a tally at the 3:32 mark, and Stock closed out the scoring with his second of the night in the final minute of play.

"I liked the way we came out to start the game and carried that through most of the first half," said CUC head coach Drew Stevenson. "Jordan had a solid outing, and our offense is showing more signs of developing good chemistry. I thought too that our goalie, Noah Bachofen (Franklin, WI/H.S.) played well under a lot of pressure, making 28 saves. Ohio Northern  is a very good team, but I thought we player well, certainly better than we did in our first game."

The Cougars (0-2) will continue this road trip with a Tuesday afternoon game at Methodist University in North Carolina.