BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Elmhurst men's lacrosse team came up short in a 23-15 shootout loss at Illinois Wesleyan University.

The high-scoring contest featured 38 goals between the two squads
 
Elmhurst battled right with the high-powered Titans for much of the contest, but Illinois Wesleyan picked up its offense over the final 20 minutes, outscoring Elmhurst 11-4 in the process en route to the eight-goal win.
 
Elmhurst grabbed an early 2-1 lead after back-to-back goals from Mac Harden. The Titans' Jacob Perry scored consecutive goals late in the first quarter to put the Titans in front 3-2 after one quarter.
 
Illinois Wesleyan (11-3, 4-1 CCIW) came out red-hot in the second quarter, rattling off five goals in the first three minutes to take an 8-2 lead. Elmhurst answered right back, with a 5-2 run to pull to within three goals with just a minute remaining in the half. Harden, Dan O'Connell, Matt Westhaver all scored a goal in the Bluejays' run while Jake Heil added back-to-back strikes to make the score 10-7. A goal from Perry with just two seconds left gave IWU an 11-7 lead at the half.
 
Illinois Wesleyan scored the first goal of the second half to push its lead up to five, but the Bluejays roared back with four straight goals over a minute span to pull to within one. Westhaver, Ty Funderburk, Jake Cambron and O'Connell all netted goals in the stretch for the Bluejays.
 
IWU answered back immediately, scoring four straight goals, including three in the final 1:46, to push its lead back to five at 16-11. Westhaver netted his third goal of the contest just before the quarter expired to pull Elmhurst back to within four (16-12) after three quarters. The Titans scored six of the first seven goals in the fourth quarter to open up a 22-13 lead en route to a 23-15 win.
 
Illinois Wesleyan outshot Elmhurst 51-34 in the contest and had a 53-33 edge in ground balls.

Harden led the charge for Elmhurst with six points, netting four goals and two assists. Westhaver added four goals for the Bluejays, while Funderburk, Heil and O'Connell added two apiece. Nick Bonastia took the loss in goal for Elmhurst despite recording 16 saves.
 
Michael Julius led the Titans with seven points on five goals and two assists. Evan Mok-Lamme added six points with four goals and two assists. Alex Doornebos (four goals, one assist) and Nick Winter (three goals, two assists) both finished with five points apiece.  
 
Elmhurst (5-8, 1-2 CCIW) travels to the University of Dubuque on April 19.