Feb. 22, 2017 - The 2017 men's lacrosse season took place under beautiful blue skies with the temperature touching 70 degrees. Unfortunately, the game itself was nowhere near as beautiful for the Concordia-Chicago men as they dropped their opening game by a score of 25-1 to North Central College,

The opening minutes heralded no clue as to what was to come. The Cardinals took the first shot of the game (wide left), but the Cougars had a few forays into the offensive end over the next few minutes. Corey Sheehan took CUC's initial shot which was saved by the NCC goalie, and Jordan Loeffler had an attempt which sailed wide left.

As the quarter moved along, the Cardinals began to get their confidence and venture into the attack zone frequently. Finally, NCC's Tanner James broke the ice with the Cardinals' first goal at the 9:30 mark. The goal brought with it a penalty to the Cougars, but the home team did a fine job in killing it off, limiting the visitors to one shot which was saved by Alex Pankey. However, the Cardinals regrouped and scored goal number two with 7:55 remaining. at that point, the floodgates opened as the Cardinals went on to score eight more goals in the quarter and lead 10-0 after one.

North Central stayed hot at the outset of the second quarter, scoring three more in the first 5:17. Shortly afterward, the Cougars earned their second man-up situation after a cross-check on one of the Cardinals. Freshman Jacob Karmia capitalized with a shot from close in on the right side for CUC's first goal of the new season.

Unfortunately for the home side, that would be the extent of any celebrations on the afternoon. The Cardinals scored five more in the second for an 18-1 halftime lead and then added two goals in the third and five in the fourth to account for the final score.

The Cougars will look for a better result on Saturday when they travel to Monmouth College in western Illinois.