ELMHURST, Ill. – The Elmhurst men's lacrosse team's 2018 season came to a close with a 15-11 loss to Carthage College in the semifinals of the CCIW Tournament.
 
Carthage (13-5) built a two-goal lead at the half before outscoring the Bluejays 8-6 in the second half to pull away for the four-goal win.
 
Carthage scored first 2:23 into the contest, but back-to-back goals from Cullen Nordemann and Carter Meyer, both coming off assists from Mac Harden, gave Elmhurst a 2-1 lead early in the quarter. Carthage pulled even at 2-2 on a goal from Colin Poitras, but Meyer's second goal of the quarter came just 11 seconds later to give Elmhurst a 3-2 lead. Carthage used goals from Ethan Flight and Andy Szun late in the quarter to carry a 4-3 lead into the second.
 
Harden's second goal of the game early in the second tied the contest at 4-4. The two teams traded goals with Szun scoring for Carthage and Marcus Yandall striking for the Bluejays to keep the score even at 5-5 with 2:34 left in the half. Carthage scored twice in the final 43 seconds, including Poitras scoring at the horn, to take a 7-5 lead at halftime.
 
The Red Men scored on a man-advantage early in the third quarter to extend their lead to three. Yandall's second goal of the contest brought Elmhurst back to within two with seven minutes left in the third, but the Red men scored three straight goals to open up a five-goal cushion with just under two minutes remaining in the third. Harden fired home a goal just before the end of the quarter to cut Carthage's lead down to four after three quarters.
 
The Red Men scored early in the fourth to push their lead back to give, but back-to-back goals from Elmhurst brought the Bluejays to within three with 4:40 remaining, but Carthage outscored Elmhurst 3-2 over the final 3:30 to come away with the four-goal win.
 
Harden paced Elmhurst in the loss with five points, scoring three times and adding two assists. Yandall totaled four points, connecting on three goals and adding an assist. Carter Meyer scored two goals, added an assist and won 17-of-27 faceoffs for the Bluejays. Andrew Frerich tallied a goal and an assist while Nordemann and Dan O'Connell also scored for the Bluejays. Jacob Delgado recorded 11 saves in net for the Bluejays.
 
Ethan Flight and Poitras led Carthage with five points apiece. Flight scored four goals and an added an assist while Poitras tallied three goals and two assists. Andy Szun also scored three times for Carthage.
 
Elmhurst finished the year with its best-season in program history, totaling a 13-3 overall record and a 5-1 mark in the CCIW. The Bluejays return all but two seniors to next year's squad.