Men's Lacrosse Falls to Concordia Wisconsin in Opener

Casey, Hernandez score twice for Monmouth

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (02/18/2023) — The Monmouth College men's lacrosse team lost their season opener at home on Saturday with a 24-5 setback against Concordia Wisconsin.

The Falcons scored three goals in the first six minutes and pushed the lead to 5-0 with a man-up goal. Monmouth got on the board with 4:22 to play in the quarter as Michael Casey (Chicago, Illinois) scored in front of the goal on an assist by Carlos Hernandez III (Billings, Montana). Neither team scored the rest of the first quarter with the Falcons leading 5-1.

With the Scots down 7-1, Hernandez scored his first collegiate goal on an assist by Kain Donohoo (St. Charles, Illinois). Less than two minutes later the Scots got another goal as Casey scored with an acrobatic move in front of goal off a pass from freshman Ben LaFrenere (Schaumburg, Illinois). Hernandez scored again off a pass from Gordon Kiesgen (Spring Grove, Illinois) to make it 8-4 Falcons.

The Falcons scored the final three goals of the half for an 11-4 lead and then the first four goals of the third quarter for a 15-4 lead. The Falcons added another four goals to lead 19-4 before Donohoo scored with 40 seconds left in the quarter.

Concordia scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter to take a 22-5 lead. After a Monmouth goal was disallowed, the Falcons scored two goals in the final three minutes for a 24-5 lead. The 24 goals are the most allowed by a Monmouth team passing a 23-1 loss to Aurora on April 24, 2019.

Hernandez and Casey both scored two goals and Hernandez added an assist. Nehemiah Declaw (Aurora, Colorado) had 15 saves in goal for Monmouth. Kiesgen was 19-for-30 on faceoffs and led the Scots with 11 ground balls while Gavin Conway (Steeleville, Illinois) led Monmouth with two caused turnovers.

The Falcons have won all five matchups between these teams including a 15-6 win last season. The Scots will return to action on Tuesday with another home game against Wabash College. The contest is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.