ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Elmhurst men's lacrosse team secured home field advantage in the opening round of the CCIW Tournament by holding off Augustana College for a 12-11 victory.
 
Elmhurst closed out the regular season with a 13-2 overall record and a 5-1 mark in the CCIW. With the victory, the Bluejays secured the No. 2 seed in next week's CCIW Tournament and the right to host a first-round contest. Augustana slipped to 8-7 overall and 3-3 in league play.
 
Elmhurst never trailed in the contest, but the Bluejays repeatedly had to turn away rallies from Augustana. The Bluejays appeared to have the game put away in the closing minutes after Trent Nyberg scored his second consecutive goal to give Elmhurst a two-goal cushion with 1:36 remaining. Augustana scored 46 seconds later to cut the Bluejays' lead in half. A penalty on the Bluejays gave Augustana the ball back with a man-up advantage, but the Bluejays' defense held over the final 30 seconds to preserve the victory.
 
Elmhurst raced out to a 3-0 lead behind goals from Dan O'Connell, Marcus Yandall and Nyberg. But three straight Augustana goals brought the Vikings even. Jake Heil scored with 19 seconds left in the first quarter to give Elmhurst a 4-3 lead after one quarter. The two teams traded goals for the first 11 minutes of the second quarter with Augustana pulling even at 5-5 with 3:32 left to play. Carter Meyer won the ensuing faceoff and promptly scored to put Elmhurst back in front. Mac Harden followed with a goal less than a minute later to give Elmhurst a 7-5 lead at the half.
 
Augustana scored twice to start the third quarter to knot the score at 7-7. O'Connell took advantage of an Augustana penalty late in the quarter to net his third goal of the game and give Elmhurst an 8-7 lead after three quarters.  O'Connell's second straight extra-man goal near the start of the fourth put Elmhurst back in front by two, but Augustana answered back with two straight to even the score at 9-9 with 8:27 left in the contest.
 
Jake Cambron scored with 4:58 left to put the Bluejays up by one, but Augustana answered back seconds later to tie the game at 10-10. Nyberg put Elmhurst up just 10 seconds later before scoring again with 1:36 left to set up the dramatic ending.
 
O'Connell paced Elmhurst in the win with four goals while Nyberg netted three. Harden finished with four points on a goal and three assists. Cullen Nordemann added three assists for the Bluejays. Yandall also registered three points with a goal and two assists. Elmhurst converted on 4-of-8 extra-man opportunities. Jacob Delgado earned the win in the cage for Elmhurst with seven saves.
 
Lee Whorwell and Trevor Moore led Augustana with four points apiece. Both players totaled three goals and an assist.

Elmhurst will host #3 seed Carthage College in the first round of the CCIW Tournament on Wednesday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m.