The Aquinas men's lacrosse team put together a strong effort on Wednesday night (Mar. 24) at the AQ Athletic Field against WHAC rival Indiana Tech, but the #2 Warriors pulled away with a pair of late goals to nab the 13-11 victory. AQ pulled within a goal at 11-10 midway through the fourth quarter, but back-to-back Warrior goals was enough to seal the win for the visitors.
 
The latest NAIA Top-10 Coaches Poll came out earlier on Wednesday, with Aquinas listed in the Receiving Votes category and Indiana Tech ranked as the #2 team in the country. With the win, Indiana Tech moves to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in WHAC play. AQ drops to 1-2 on the season and 1-1 in league action. The Saints' two losses are to the #2 Warriors and #9 Saint Ambrose.
 
Wednesday's game was a great back-and-forth affair, with the teams trading leads four times in just the first half. After Indiana Tech scored the opening goal, the duo of Zachary Sweet and Joey Fitzgerald notched back-to-back goals, with Sweet's two tallies putting AQ up 2-1.
 
The Warriors jumped ahead 3-2 with consecutive goals, but Aquinas regained the 4-3 lead on a Walker West unassisted tally and another Sweet goal, this time assisted by Mitch Haggart. Indiana Tech would score the final two markers of the half and lead 5-4 at halftime. 
 
Trailing 6-4, West registered back-to-back goals to tie the game at 6-6 with 8:36 left in the third quarter. Jon Jardis assisted on the second West goal. A few minutes later, Haggart again found Sweet for a game-tying goal at 7-7 with 6:43 to play in the quarter. 
 
Indiana Tech made a big game-changing run at that point, scoring four unanswered goals over the next four minutes to lead 11-7. That was the score entering the fourth quarter before Sweet and Haggart notched consecutive goals in a 94-second span to make it an 11-9 game with more than 12 minutes left.
 
More than five minutes later, Jardis found West again for a goal to bring the Saints within one at 11-10 at the 6:55 mark. The Warriors quickly answered, scoring 53 second later and again less than two minutes after that for the 13-10 edge. Sweet made it 13-11 with 3:10 remaining, but Indiana Tech would not allow another AQ shot over the final three minutes.
 
The Warriors held a 65-35 advantage in total shots and a 41-22 mark in ground balls. Indiana Tech won the faceoff battle, 21-7. 
 
Sweet finished with a game-high six goals on seven shots on goal, while West finished with four goals, two assists, and three ground balls. Fitzgerald, Jardis, and Haggart all registered two assists each.
 
Clayton Boerigter was terrific in net, making 23 saves on the 65 Warrior shots. Sam Asare-Konadu caused three turnovers and picked up three ground balls and Kevin Lahaie also caused three turnovers and added a pair of ground balls. Matt Wagner collected two caused turnovers and two ground balls.
 
AQ's tough early season schedule continues on Saturday (Mar. 27), when the Saints host #7 Madonna at the AQ Athletic Field at 3:00 p.m.