GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Calvin men's lacrosse team dropped an 11-9 decision to the visiting Scarlet Hawks of Illinois Institute of Technology on Tuesday night at Eagles Stadium on the campus of Grand Rapids Christian High School.
Calvin scored the first three goals on Tuesday night but IIT (2-0) responded with three goals of its own to tie the score. Calvin (1-1) used a late first quarter goal by
Braden Carpenter (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville HS) to lead 4-3 after one.
The second quarter belong to Illinois Tech with the Scarlet Hawks outscoring Calvin 5-1 in the quarter to build an 8-5 halftime lead.
After falling behind 9-5 early in the third, Calvin regained momentum with back-to-back unassisted goals from
Thomas Smith (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich./Grosse Pointe South HS). The Knights gave up a goal with eight seconds left in the third quarter however as the Scarlet Hawks built a 10-7 lead.
Early fourth quarter goals from
Nick Griffith (Geneva, Fla./Ovideo HS) and
Christian Coler (Ionia, NY/Honeyoye Falls-Lima) brought Calvin within a goal at 10-9 but the Knight offense went stagnant from there. Meanwhile Illinois Tech scored an important insurance goal with 4:50 remaining and kept the Knights at bay the rest of the game to seal the win.
Coler led the Calvin offensive attack with three goals with Smith adding his back-to-back tallies in the third quarter. Senior
Chase Sparling (Novi, Mich./Novi HS), Griffith, Carpenter and
Josh Newhouse (Grand Junction, Co./Palisade HS) had single goals with Newhouse also assisting on a pair.
Nate Hanson scooped up 11 ground balls and was 18-20 on faceoff opportunities.
Corgan Schaumburg (Rockton, Il./ Hononegah) had 15 saves in goal for the Knights. Three of Illinois Tech's goals were scored on man-up opportunities.
COACHES COMMENT: "Illinois Tech played a great game," said Calvin head men's lacrosse coach
Dave Hoger. "We will learn a lot from tonight and we look forward to preparing for Concordia on Saturday."
NEXT UP: Calvin will host Concordia of Wisconsin on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Eagles Stadium.
