February 25, 2017 - The Concordia-Chicago men's lacrosse team traveled to Monmouth today to take on the Fighting Scots of Monmouth College.  After the first game of the year against first year program North Central College, the Cougars wanted to get back on track and in the win column against another first-year program in Monmouth.  However, the Scots hot first quarter was too much for the Cougars, as CUC were not able to cut the lead any more than four with Monmouth winning 12-7. 
 
Right from the first face-off of the game, both teams were off to a hot start in the cold as Monmouth jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead, but a minute later, CUC's Jordan Loeffler was able to tie the game at one. In a matter of five minutes, Monmouth scored five goals, three of which, the Scots had a man up advantage on the Cougars.  Monmouth finished the quarter strong with a 6-1 lead. 
 
The second quarter was much more slow paced as the Fighting Scots went into a more defensive type game holding onto a five point lead.  The Cougars couldn't manage to find any sort of rhythm on offense outside of a Jacob Karmia goal, Monmouth extended their lead to 8-2 heading into halftime.
 
Concordia-Chicago came out in the third quarter knowing they needed a jump start on offense to get back into the game.  Holding true to the first half, Monmouth showed that they wanted to play steady defense as the Cougars held possession most of the third.  A Brett Krueger goal was the lone goal for the Cougars in the third quarter despite holding possession much of the quarter.  The steady defense of Monmouth gave them a 9-3 lead heading fourth quarter.
 
The Cougars started the fourth quarter much like the third coming out strong, netting two goals by Karmia and Kruger to cut the Monmouth lead to 9-5.  In a matter of three minutes, the Fighting Scots quickly halted any momentum the Cougars thought they had with three goals to put the game out of reach at 12-5.  Two more late goals for the Cougars didn't do any damage into Monmouth's confidence as they finished the game winning by the final score of 12-7.
 
Krueger led the Cougars with 3 goals and 1 ground ball, followed by Karmia with 2 goals and 4 ground balls.  The big difference in the game was the man up advantage that Monmouth took control of.  On the man up, CUC was 0-2, while the Scots were 6-9.
 
The Cougars (0-2, 0-1 MLC) return to action next Wednesday as they travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan to take on Kalamazoo College. Face-off is set for 6:00pm central time.