Release courtesy Lake Forest Athletics
The Lake Forest College men's lacrosse team hosted Transylvania University in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Wednesday and came out on top 12-10.
Forester junior Trip Gastom started the scoring six minutes into the contest and added a man-up goal later in the opening period. Sophomore Ryan Dousevicz assisted on each of Gaston's first two goals of the day and scored one of his own in between. Fellow sophomore Brendan Herbert added the first of his two goals in the contest and the home team was ahead 4-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Pioneers battled back in the second, scoring twice in the first six minute and converting a man-up opportunity to make it a 4-3 game midway through the quarter. Herbert's second score of the game ended the run but the visitors struck again with 47.1 seconds on the clock to make the halftime score 5-4.
Transylvania tied the game again less than two minutes into the second half but junior Jahn Casey regained the lead for Lake Forest at the 11:24 mark. Casey also assisted classmate Parker Hevers 67 seconds later and, after the Pioneers pulled back to within one, doubled the lead again at the 5:32 mark with his second of the game. The visitors closed to within a goal again but Gaston secured his hat trick with 1:09 remaining and a tally from freshman Macklin Thomas with 5.2 seconds left made it a 10-7 game after three quarters.
Gaston's second man-up goal of the day and fourth overall came with 13:35 remaining and gave the Foresters a four-score cushion. After a Transylvania goal, freshman Carson Pagel restored the home team's largest lead of the game with exactly five minutes to play.The Pioneers scored again a minute later and made it a two-goal game with 57.1 seconds to play but got no closer.
Lake Forest junior goalie Andrew Widlar made a pair of saves in the final minute to prevent a Pioneer comeback and finished the game with 13. He also had three ground balls and a caused turnovers in the contest.
Junior Jack Gillard led Lake Forest with four caused turnovers and his four ground balls were just one shy of sophomore Gabe Boston's team-high total. Boston won six of his 10 face-offs and the Foresters had a 14-11 edge in that category as a team. They also tallied 43 ground balls to Transylvania's 30.
Lake Forest is now 16-2 while Transylvania's season ends at 11-7.
The Foresters will travel to Lynchburg, Virginia, this weekend and will take on Washington and Lee University in Saturday's second round.
With today's victory, it's the first time since 2016 an MLC men's team has won a first-round NCAA tournament game, which is also the first win in the NCAA Tournament for an MLC team since 2016 (Aurora 12, Albion 11 (OT)).
MLC in NCAA Tournament
2011 Wittenberg 8, Adrian 7 (OT) First-round
2012 Denison 12, Adrian 11 First-round
2013 Aurora 13, Ohio Wesleyan 9 First-round
SUNY Cortland 14, Aurora 8 Second-round
2014 Aurora 22, Adrian 13 First-round
Denison 11, Aurora 8 Second-round
2015 Aurora 8, Otterbein 6 First-round
Lynchburg 19, Aurora 8 Second-round
2016 Aurora 12, Albion 11 (OT) First-round
Dension 12, Aurora 3 Second-round
2017 IL Wesleyan 19, Aurora 15 Second-round
2018 Ohio Wesleyan 13, Aurora 5 Second-round
2019 Denison 12, CUW 6 Second-round
2020 Tournament not held
2021 Illinois Wesleyan 30, Northwestern 9 First-round
2022 Albion 11, Dubuque 6 First-round
2023 John Carroll 23, Lake Forest 2 First-round