On a historic afternoon at Aurora University, the Spartan men's lacrosse program overcame an early deficit to defeat the visiting Thunder of Trine University 10-8 on Vago Field.

Playing in front of an energetic home crowd the Spartans and Thunder opened the contest with the two Midwest Lacrosse Conference foes trying to get a feel for each others style of play.

The Thunder struck first in the first period when junior midfielder Blaine Stahley blistered a shot past AU freshman goalkeeper Adam Holka for a 1-0 lead. With just over a minute remaining in the opening period, Stahley struck again for his second goal of the game and 24th of the season giving the veteran Thunder a 2-0 lead on the young Spartans.

When the second period began the two teams again got into a defensive frenzy until Spartan freshman midfielder Jack Meachum struck with 7:47 to play in the first-half. Meachum scored his 12th goal of the season, getting his shot past Trine senior goalkeeper Alex Gregg.

Trine looked to take complete control of the contest in the final 1:33 of play in the first-half. Stahley connected for his third goal of the game and just 20 seconds later with 1:13 to play, sophomore attackman Andrew Laycock found the back of the net off an assist from sophomore midfielder Dalton Madsen.

The pair of goals gave Trine a 4-1 lead heading into the halftime intermission.

The halftime speech of Spartan head coach Brendan Dawson woke up his young club who had come in winning three of their previous four contests. Meachum got the ball rolling for the Spartans when he tallied his second goal of the game with 11:31 on the clock in the third period.

Trine junior attackman Andy Lauer answered the AU goal pushing the Thunder lead back to three goals (5-2) with 8 minutes to go.

With four minutes to play in the third period, the Spartan offense came to life, tallying four goals in just over two minutes. Freshman attackman Garret Rosiek started the scoring off with his seventh goal of the season and just seconds later assisted on freshman attackman Pat Diorka's goal that brought the Spartans within a goal.

Following a Thunder penalty, Meachum struck again, his third of the game, tying the contest 5-5. Freshman midfielder Zack Olsen assisted on the Meachum goal. 50 seconds later Diorka found the back of the net again giving the Spartans a 6-5 lead and bringing the noisy home crowd to their feet.

The experienced Thunder would not go away quietly though and with 1:17 left in the period, junior midfielder Eric Thompson scored to tie the game 6-6.

The fourth period saw the Spartans continue the momentum they fought so hard to get in the previous period. A minute into the fourth, freshman attackman Alec Downing scored off an assist from Meachum, giving the Spartans a lead they would not relinquish.

A few minutes later Meachum found the scoring column for the fourth time in the game and the 15th time on the season giving the Spartans an 8-6 lead but the Thunder's offensive leader Stahley answered with his fourth goal of the contest, cutting the AU lead to one at 8-7.

Two minutes later the Spartans grabbed control of a ground ball and after a successful clear, Olsen found a wide open net as the Thunder goalie was caught retreating. Olsen's shot from 30 yards out pushed the lead back to 9-7.  A minute and a half later, Diorka tallied a hat-trick of his own and gave the Spartans a commanding three-goal lead (10-7) with under three minutes to play.

Trine was able to tally a goal with 56 seconds to play as Laycock scored his second of the game but that was all the visiting Thunder could muster.

Holka stood strong in the second half with eight saves in the contest. Combined with his effort and the strong play from the defense in front of him, the Spartan offense was able to out-score Trine 9-4 in the final two periods for the win.

The win improved the Spartans record to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in the MLC, while Trine is now 6-1 overall and 0-1 in the MLC.

Next action for the Spartan men's lacrosse team comes on Saturday, April 2, 2011 when they travel to the College of Mount St. Joseph. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. (est) in Cincinnati, Ohio.