Comeback Falls Short in Chicago

CHICAGO – The Falcons fell short in the final game of the regular season on Saturday at Illinois Tech. The Scarlet Hawks secured a home game in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Men's Lacrosse Tournament with an 11-7 victory. The loss gives the Falcons the third seed in the NACC Tournament at 6-2 and sends CUW to 11-5 on the season.

Illinois Tech struck first on Saturday with a goal in the first two minutes.

Sophomore Chase Drexler (Vernon Hills, Ill.) tied the game with a laser to the lower corner after he broke to his right.

The Falcons were able to take advantage of an IIT penalty when sophomore Gio Nowotarski (Reading, Pa.) blasted the ball into the net off a pass from freshman Jason Michalski (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.).

On the next possession, sophomore Pat Ryan (Western Spring, Ill.) crashed the net to score with two seconds left in the first quarter.

Illinois Tech posted a 5-0 margin in the second quarter to take a 6-3 lead into halftime.

Gio Nowotarski snapped the skid with a shot to the upper corner off a pass from sophomore Max Esposito (Gaithersburg, Md.) from behind the net.

After Illinois Tech added two more goals, the Falcons responded with a goal from senior Matthew Sierzega (Grayslake, Ill.) with four seconds left in the quarter.

The Scarlet Hawks responded with two more goals to start the fourth quarter.

Patrick Ryan was able to bounce in a shot off a pass from Chase Drexler.

The seventh goal of the day came from Gio Nowotarski after he was able to dance past his defender and sink the shot into the net.

Senior Evan Leden (Waukegan, Ill.) had seven saves on Saturday.

The Falcons held a 50-46 advantage in shots against the Scarlet Hawks. Gio Nowotarski led the game with 14 shots.

Senior Noah Brandt (Owatonna, Minn.) collected a game-high seven ground balls and 12 faceoffs.  With the ground balls, Brandt broke the single-season record for ground balls in program history.

The Falcons will try to flip the script on Tuesday when they head back to Illinois Tech for the NACC Tournament Semifinals. Aurora will host MSOE in the other semifinal matchup.