On a beautiful spring afternoon at AU's Vago Field, the Spartan men's lacrosse team came out in dominating form to defeat the visiting Panthers of Hanover College 14-3.

The Spartans took control immediately after the face-off to start the contest. After freshman Andrew Miller won the face-off, the AU offense controlled the ball for the first minute in Panther territory before freshman Jack Meachum tallied the first of seven first period goals by the Spartans. Fellow freshman Alec Downing assisted on the Meachum goal.

Downing and freshman Pat Diorka combined to score the other six goals in the first period, three goals each. Included in the scoring was a quick spree of three goals in 43 seconds with Downing having two of those goals.

With the Spartans up 7-0 after the first period,  the AU coaching staff expanded the substitution pattern to eventually include all Spartans who were dressed saw game action.

Hanover tallied the first goal with 11:32 to play in the second period and after AU freshman Garret Rosiek and Downing scored less than two minutes apart, the Panthers scored with three minutes to play in the first half.

Diorka would score his fourth goal of the first half with just under a minute of action remaining, he was assisted by Che'V-onn Harris.

The Diorka goal concluded the first half scoring out-burst for AU and gave the Spartans a 10-2 lead going into intermission.

The second half saw the Spartans continue to play everyone on the roster with Downing scoring two goals to give him six in the game and Rosiek scoring his second of the game in the third period.

A Hanover goal man-up goal in the late minutes of the third period gave AU a 13-3 lead after three periods.

Spartan goalkeeper Adam Holka was relieved by goalkeeper Dan Gault to start the fourth period. The fourth period didn't see a lot of scoring threats until freshman Jordan Coward scored the games final goal with 00:05 left on the game clock.

AU improves to 6-4 overall and 2-1 in the Midwest Lacrosse Conference with the 14-3 win while Hanover is now 1-8 overall.

Top Spartan Offensive Performers on the day included Downing (ties a school record with six goals and one assist), Rosiek (two goals and four assists), Diorka (four goals and one assist), Meachum (one goal and one assist), Coward (one goal) and freshmen Sean Keogh, Che'V-onn Harris, Justin Bose and Bryce Kunde each had one assist.

Next action for the Spartan men's lacrosse team comes on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 when they host Milwaukee School of Engineering. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m. on Vago Field in Aurora, Ill.