Falcons Fall to Firebirds

MEQUON, Wis. – The CUW men's lacrosse team matched up with the Carthage Firebirds in their second contest in 72 hours on Wednesday afternoon.

The Firebirds got out to a hot start with three goals in a minute and a half.

Junior Caleb Ruger (Grafton, Wis.) got the ball rolling for the Falcons with just over 13 minutes remaining.

Carthage scored four more goals to close out the first quarter, including a man-up goal, to take the 7-1 lead. They opened the second quarter with two goals to take the 9-1 advantage.

The Falcons netted two goals to close the half down 3-9. Sophomore Chase Drexler (Vernon Hills, Ill.) netted the second Falcon goal off an assist from sophomore Max Esposito (Gaithersburg, Md.). Sophomore Pat Ryan (Western Springs, Ill.) netted the final Falcon goal of the half off another assist from Esposito.

The third quarter was the most offensively potent quarter of the matchup with 11 total goals. The Firebirds netted six and the Falcons netted five.  

Carthage recorded the first two goals.

Sophomore Gio Nowotarski (Reading, Pa.) found the back of the net off a pass from Esposito. 

Esposito followed that up with a goal of his own to cut the Falcon deficit to six at 5-11.

The Firebirds pushed back out to 13-5 with two goals of their own.

Freshman Jason Michalski (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) netted his first goal of the game for the sixth Falcon goal.

Carthage answered with their 14th goal.

Ruger capitalized on a man-up opportunity with an assist coming from Esposito.

The teams kept trading goals with the Firebirds netting their 15th of the matchup.

With 19 seconds left in the third quarter, Michalski scored his second goal of the game with yet another assist coming from Esposito.

The Falcons won the fourth quarter with four of the seven goals in the final frame.

Carthage scored the first two goals and took the 17-8 lead.

The Falcons answered with three straight goals including a man-up goal. Freshman Preston Meier (Owatonna, Minn.) got the ball rolling with an unassisted goal with 3:34 left in the matchup. Sophomore Zach Wilder (Midland, Mich.) scored 30 seconds later on another unassisted goal. Michalski recorded the first hat trick of his collegiate career on a man-up goal off an assist from Pat Ryan.

The Firebirds scored their final goal of the game with just over two minutes left on a man-up opportunity.

Esposito finished the game by scoring an unassisted goal with 1:08 left in the matchup.

The Firebirds moved to 7-2 and the Falcons moved to 4-3 with the 18-12 matchup.

Senior Evan Leden (Waukegan, Ill.) broke his personal record for saves in a game (which he set in Monday's matchup) with 22 saves.

Esposito led the offense with seven total points. He scored two goals and a career-high five assists against the Firebirds.

The Falcons are next in action with their third game of the week on Saturday when they face Beloit.