KENOSHA, WIS.—The Carthage College men's lacrosse team welcomed Elmhurst College to Art Keller Field for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Semifinals on Wednesday night.
 
The Red Men, who earned a share of the 2016 CCIW Regular Season Championship with Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana, earned the #1 seed by way of their plus-11 goal differential in conference games. Elmhurst made a trip to Art Keller Field for a game on April 20. It was a contest that saw Carthage register a 10-7 victory. Wednesday night's contest was déjà vu because the Red Men and Bluejays met in last season's CCIW Semifinal on April 25, 2015. The Red Men came up on top 8-4 in that contest.
 
Carthage was looking for déjà vu in the final result, and that came true in an 11-10 victory over Elmhurst College thanks to Tanner Thomas's game-winning goal with 0:12 left in the game.
 
The Red Men improve to 9-9 on the season while the Bluejays conclude their 2016 campaign with a 6-11 overall record.
 
Red Men 11, Elmhurst College 10
 
The Bluejays turned their first possession of the game into a goal. Jackson Mandli did the honors with a goal at the 12:16 mark of the first quarter to give Elmhurst a 1-0 lead.
 
That was enough to fuel the Red Men's fire, and Justin Proctor made that evident when he won the ensuing faceoff. Luke Seydel followed that with a shot from the left side that beat Elmhurst goalkeeper Nick Bonastia to tie the game 1-1 with 11:13 left in the first quarter.
 
The Red Men took their first lead of the game when Dylan Harris tallied a goal at the 7:26 mark of the first quarter to make the score 2-1. Carthage held a 7-1 advantage in the shots department at that point in the contest.
 
That margin continued to widen when Eric Langston's turnover with 3:13 left in the first quarter generated another Carthage run. Jared Ferrell turned that into a goal at the 3:06 mark of the first quarter to push the Red Men's lead to 3-1.
 
Elmhurst responded with a goal when leading-scorer Mac Harden tallied his 32^nd of the season with 14:16 left in the second quarter to narrow the margin to 3-2.
 
The Red Men responded with three-consecutive goals en route to a 6-2 lead with 3:39 remaining in the second frame. Thomas, Luke Seydel and Jared Ferrell each notched a goal for Carthage in that span.
 
The Bluejays had the Red Men on the ropes with a pair of goals within the final two minutes of the second half to make the score 6-4 at halftime.
 
Proctor kept the momentum in the Red Men's court when he took control of the opening face-off in the second half. That generated Thomas's second goal of the game at the 13:37 mark of the third quarter to widen the Red Men's lead to 7-4.
 
Matt Curran and Andy Szun each poured salt on the Bluejays's wound with a goal to widen the Red Men's lead to 9-4 with 7:47 left in the second half.
 
The Bluejays cut the Red Men lead to 9-7 before Thomas tallied his third goal of the game with 0:12 left in the third frame to make the score 10-7.
 
The Red Men won the fourth-quarter opening face-off on a violation, but that's all that seemed to go their way for most of the frame. Elmhurst capitalized on a Carthage-turnover when Harden tallied a goal at the 11:58 mark of the fourth quarter to make the score 10-8.
 
The Red Men responded with a successful clear with 9:12 remaining in the game, but that didn't result in anything. The Bluejays answered with a goal at the 6:11 mark of the fourth quarter to make the score 10-9. A slashing-penalty called on Carthage with 4:56 left in the game turned into an Elmhurst-goal to tie the game 10-10 at the 4:18 mark.
 
Carthage and Elmhurst were tick-for-tack until Red Men head coach David Neff called a timeout to re-group with 1:07 left in the game. This led to a string of shots, which paved the way for Thomas's game-winning goal with 0:12 left in the game to give the Red Men an 11-10 win.
 
Thomas led the Carthage scoring with four goals in the game. Ryan Smith tallied 10 saves in net for the Red Men. Carthage took three penalties for three minutes in the contest. The Red Men outshot the Bluejays 34-33 in the game. 
 
The Red Men will face Illinois Wesleyan University in the 2016 CCIW Men's Lacrosse Championship Game on Saturday, May 7. Game time from Art Keller Field is set for 2:00 p.m.