Box Score The Aurora University men's lacrosse team hosted the Vikings of Augustana College on
Saturday afternoon. The visitors struck first but Aurora strung together an 8-0 run to follow before going on to win
the contest 13-4 on AU's senior day.
In the first five minutes of play, Augustana's Chris Hager found himself in front of the goal and finished to put his team on the scoreboard first. The Spartans seemed to act as the score was still 0-0 which was apparent over the remainder of the half.
AU junior
Jack Barry had the tying goal at the 6:34 mark of the first quarter.
Danny Loyall and
Pat Diorka quickly added two more goals which were both assisted by
Justin Bose.
The Spartans first quarter scoring was capped off by
Nolan Miller on a nice feed from
Andrew Schoessel. This goal put the home team up 4-1.
Aurora continued with strong play into the second quarter. Diorka and Schoessel both scored early in the period to pad the Spartan lead. At the half, the Spartans found themselves up comfortably, 7-1.
Diorka opened up the second half with his fourth goal of the day. However, the Vikings started to create
more chances around the net and answered with two of the next three goals in the game.
The Spartans picked up their play again and
Jordan Williams buried a shot to make it 10-3. After an Augustana tally, Aurora added three more before it was all said and done. The Spartans came out victorious with a score of 13-4.
Diorka (four goals and one assist) and Bose (one goal and three assists) led the Spartan offense on
Saturday. The defensive play cannot be overlooked though, as Aurora held Augie to shoot mainly from the outside.
Spartan junior goalkeeper
Adam Holka played stellar in goal for the Spartans as he had an outstanding .800 save percentage (16-20) while also causing two turnovers and amassing four ground balls. LSM
Spencer Fuqua had a very strong game in front of Holka as he caused the Augustana players to turn the ball over six times while collecting nine ground balls. As a whole, the Spartans kept the Vikings scoreless in nine man-up situations which totaled 5:30 of play.
With the win, the Spartans improve to 10-3 overall and 7-0 in the Midwest Lacrosse Conference. Aurora will be in action again on Sunday,
April 21 as they take on rival Benedictine University. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in Lisle, Ill.
