BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Carthage men's lacrosse team dropped a 17-11 match at Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon at Tucci Stadium.

The Firebirds (7-2, 1-1 CCIW) were first on the board, as Colin Poitras scored a man-up goal minutes into the match, before adding a second score off an assist from George Burchfield to make it 2-0. After the Titans (8-1, 3-0 CCIW) responded to make it 2-1, goals from Andrew Johnson and Burchfield in the final minutes of the first quarter gave Carthage a 4-1 advantage.

While Illinois Wesleyan would score first to begin the second period, Noah Lindner and Poitras found the back of the net to give the visiting Firebirds a 6-4 lead at the half. To open the third quarter, the Titans took the lead with three quick goals. After Carthage was able to tie the game at seven, Illinois Wesleyan took the lead moments later and held on for the remainder of the game.

The Firebirds are scheduled to return home next, hosting Elmhurst on Wednesday, April 14 at 7 p.m.
 

Head Coach David Neff

"We were ready to play this game, and I thought we had a great first half, but it's a 60-minute game. At the end of the day it still comes down to possessions. We have to find a way to win more faceoffs, and we need to be better at clears. The clearing game is on me because we just were not ready for the ten-man ride. There are a lot of things we can get better at, and we need to because we have two more very good CCIW teams next week. There are no easy games left on the schedule so we just need to take them one at a time and get better. Sam Kotsonas had a great game today in his second start as well. You never want to lose but this game was a lot closer than the six-goal difference at the end, we played well just not great."
 

Quick Facts

• With four goals today, Noah Lindner now has 95 for his career with the Firebirds, moving him into 10th all-time in program history.
• Lindner scored his second career man-down goal today, and is now tied with Danny Morse for the most all-time at Carthage.
• Colin Poitras picked up his 63rd career assist, moving up to sixth all time at Carthage.
• Liam O'Connor recorded his 80th career caused turnover today.

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