Spartans Open 2018 Season With Win Over Cornell
Feb 21, 2018
| SCORE BY PERIOD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cornell | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Dubuque, Univ. of | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque men's lacrosse team opened their season with a thrilling 7-6 win over Cornell College. It is the first time in the program's five years that the season has started with a victory.
UD wasted little time getting into the scoring column when Michael Julius rifled a shot into the back of the net just 1:42 into the game. After 10 minutes without any scoring from either side, Rob Benson took advantage of a Cornell penalty and scored a man advantage goal off of an assist from Michael Julius. As time was winding down in the first quarter, Michael Julius sent a shot that found its way into the net right before the buzzer to give UD a 3-0 lead after one.
Cornell's offense then found it's groove, scoring three of the next four goals before Ben Gallagher scored a late second quarter goal to give the Spartans a 5-3 lead at the break.
Cornell scored three of the first four goals in the second half to even the score up at 6-6 with 8:54 remaining in the game. UD responded a minute and a half later as Michael Jango assisted Tanner Weis for the go ahead goal with 7:32 left. Cornell had the ball with under a minute left and trailing by one but the Spartan defense stepped up and forced a turnover and the Spartans were then able to run out the clock for the win.
Michael Julius led the attack for UD, coming up with five points in the season opener on four goals and one assist. UD assisted on four of seven goals, three of which came from Michael Jango. In the net, Kyle Mullins played all 60:00 minutes and recorded 11 saves. Noah Coleman did a quality job at the faceoff circle, winning six of nine attempts.
The Spartans took advantage of the Rams' penalties, using the man advantage to score twice on three man-up chances. Meanwhile, the UD defense tightened up while playing a man down, allowing one Ram goal with a man advantage on six chances.
The Spartans hit the road this weekend to take on Benedictine University at 1:00 on Saturday, Feb. 24th.
