(Ann Arbor, MI) After winning the WHAC Regular Season Championship with a perfect conference record, the Concordia Men's Lacrosse team hosted a WHAC Semifinal game Thursday afternoon. As the top seed, the Cardinals welcomed the fifth seeded Wolverines from Michigan-Dearborn to Ferry Field at Cardinal Stadium. The Cardinals collected the 16-7 win over the Wolverines, advancing to the WHAC Championship which they will host on Saturday April 27th.
The first five minutes of the game featured both goalies making save after save, keeping it scoreless early. Spencer Guppy opened up the scoring in the game, followed quickly by unassisted markers from Ross Preston and Noah Sorenson to make it 3-0, all within a time frame of just over a minute. The Wolverines got one back, but Concordia tacked on two more before the end of the quarter with Andrew Simmons scoring and Zachary Dixon launching a long pass from sixty yards away that bounced into the net for Concordia's fifth goal.
Hunter McCarty put up the first goal of the second quarter with a sweeping backhand shot coming from behind the goal. Minutes later McCarty finished off a goal after defender Jeff Harrison raced up the field and found the senior attackman who awarded the defender with the assist. Travis Wright scored his first goal of the day, but then the Wolverines took advantage of a man-up opportunity to draw within six before the half.
The first goal of the second half was another Wolverines man-up advantage to bring it within five. Evan Stuart got that goal back for the Cardinals, which was followed by another goal for Michigan-Dearborn. Concordia scored four times in the final seven minutes of the third quarter with Hunter McCarty, Ryan Davis, Andrew Simmons, and Ivan Progar all contributing.
It wasn't until five minutes into the fourth quarter that either team was able to score, as UM-Dearborn put one in. The Cardinals responded with three of their own, including a Ryan Davis one-timer from Noah Sorensen, before the Wolverines scored another man-up goal with four minutes remaining.
Sam Bowling finished the game with 14 saves, while Josh Dues led the Cardinals with 3 caused turnovers.
The Cardinals will now advance to the WHAC Championship, which they will host as the top seed on Saturday, April 27th. Faceoff is set for 1:00 PM on Ferry Field at Cardinal Stadium.
