River Forest, Ill.- Concordia-Chicago's men's lacrosse team squared off against the North Central University Rams on a cool and brisk day. With both teams coming in winless on the year, something had to give. The Cougars jumped out to a 6-3 lead at halftime and didn't look back from there. Concordia-Chicago went on to earn their first victory of 2018 with a 9-5 win over the Rams.
Head Coach Brian Welch on the first victory of the 2018 season and his first as a Cougar, "Just happy for these guys, that they h,ave stuck together for so long. This win really carries the momentum of what Coach Lukk and I are trying to embody here at CUC. We had a game plan today and we executed it perfectly. Robert Padilla and Jack Liskey were tremendous defensively, and our offense with Hunter and Jordan were great in moving the ball and picking their spots to shoot and capitalize."
Hunter Combe and Jordan Loeffler each had three goals on the day, while DeMond Menefee, returning from injury netted two of his own. Liskey made 13 saves for a save percentage of .722.
North Central led the game off with a goal minutes into the game, but Combe responded with a goal of his own to tie the game at 1-1. Seven minutes later, Menefee scored his first goal of the season to make it 2-1 and give CUC their first lead of the season. The Cougars kept the attack coming when Combe netted his second goal of the match to increase the lead to 3-1.
Moments later Combe continued to stay hot and scored his third goal, this time a beautiful pass from Benjamin Lang to make it 4-2. Seconds before the end of the first quarter, Menefee bounced one past the goalkeeper to pad the Cougars lead to 5-2. The entire second quarter saw no goals scored until Loeffler fired a rocket through the Rams' defense with under 20 seconds on the clock to make the score 6-3 going into halftime.
Loeffler kicked off the second half with his second goal of the match as well as his second of the year to add to the CUC cushion at 7-3. Seemingly unstoppable, Loeffler scored his third consecutive goal for the hat trick to make the score 8-3 going into the final period of regulation. Lang joined in on the fun with the final goal of the game and his first of the season, after a cross field pass from Menefee that led Lang right into great position for his eventual goal. North Central scored a few late goals, but the final score ended at 9-5 in favor of the Cougars, handing them their first win of the season.
Concordia-Chicago (1-3) will be back in action next Wednesday, March 14, against Aurora University in River Forest at 1:00 p.m.
