Men’s Lacrosse takes advantage of Augustana penalties
Box Score: CUW 8, AC 6
MEQUON, Wis. - When Augustana College committed a penalty, Concordia University Wisconsin took advantage en route to an 8-6 non-conference victory on Saturday at Fitting Field. The victory gave the Falcons their third straight and tied the program record for wins in a season.
The game was tight throughout, but CUW finished 4-for-5 in extra-man opportunities and Danny Dahms scored twice with a man-up. The Vikings ended the opening half with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which gave the Falcons a one-minute extra-man situation to begin the third quarter.
The Falcons used the Vikings mental lapse to tally two goals in a 45-second span to take a 6-4 lead. They added another goal to take their largest advantage of the game, 7-4, and never looked back. CUW's win gave them eight on the season - tying last season's win total - with at least three games remaining on the schedule.
Freshman Derek Brueske (Hopkins, Minn.) and Dahms (sophomore, Calgary, Alberta) each scored a game-high three goals, while sophomore Justin Krause (Hartland, Wis.) assisted on a season-high-tying three scores.
AC (8-5) had five players score and was paced by Collin Haley's two goals. The Vikings finished with a slight advantage in shots, ground balls and faceoffs won.
AC entered the game with the nation's No. 1 ranked scoring defense at 4.42 goals allowed per game, but CUW fired 18 shots on goal and scored nearly twice as many as the Vikings allow.
The Falcons opened the contest with back-to-back goals behind spot-on passing that led to Brueske and Dahms finding the back of the net.
The next four goals alternated between the teams, prior to AC scoring consecutively to tie the game at 4-4 heading into the intermission.
CUW recorded successive goals on extra-man situations because of AC's unreleasable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to end the second quarter. Brueske scored his third of the game with 12:56 to play in the third to end a three-goal scoring run in a span of two minutes and 51 seconds for the Falcons.
The Vikings scored twice to get within one goal, 7-6, but Dahms scored his final of the game to give the Falcons an 8-6 lead.
CUW returns to Midwest Lacrosse Conference play on Wednesday when they travel to Aurora University for a 4 p.m. matchup at Vago Field.
