The Aurora University men's lacrosse team took on Denison University Sunday afternoon looking to avenge the 2014 loss that ended the Spartans season in the Sweet 16. Unfortunately, the Spartans lost 19-10 to Denison.

AU fell behind 2-0 in the first quarter before a man-up goal from sophomore Jason Koziol put the Spartans on the scoreboard. Koziol was assisted by Max Obriecht.

After another Denison goal, the Spartans rallied for two goals in the final three minutes of the first quarter. The first coming from Obriecht on a Garret Rosiek assist on a man-up situation and the tying goal was from Dustin Rhodes with Rosiek assisting on this goal also. At the end of one quarter, the game was tied 3-3.

Early in the second quarter the Spartans found themselves on another man-up situation and once again capitalized. Obriecht tallied his second goal at 14:39 giving AU a 4-3 lead.

Denison would respond with three straight goals to take a 6-4 lead before Koziol scored to cut the AU deficit back to one at 6-5 with 5:04 remaining in the second. Koziol's goal was assisted on by Rosiek. The teams went into halftime with AU trailing 8-5 after two more Denison goals before the half.

The AU man-up unit was able to tally the first strike of the second half with seniors Danny Loyall and Nolan Miller connecting. Miller assisted on the Loyall goal. This goal though would be the last for AU in the third while Denison scored four times to grab a 12-6 lead through three quarters.

For the third straight quarter, the Spartans scored first as Obriecht collected a hat trick with an unassisted goal just 11 seconds into the quarter. Denison would break the gam wide open though, scoring six times to take a commanding 18-7 lead with just under six minutes to play.

AU would not go home quietly as they scored three times in the closing minutes with scores coming from Max Matthai (unassisted), Koziol (his third with a Joe Ebel assist) and JK Torres (Nick Glaser assist).

With the loss, AU is now 2-5 overall on the season. Next action for the Spartan men's lacrosse comes on Wednesday, March 18 when they host Elmhurst College. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m. on Vago Field