The Lake Forest College men's lacrosse team edged out visiting University of Dubuque 10-8 on Saturday to clinch the Midwest Lacrosse Conference championship for the second year in a row.

The Foresters converted on their first two man-up opportunities with junior Trip Gaston striking mid-way through the opening quarter and sophomore Ryan Dousevicz with just 15 seconds on the clock 

The teams switched directions and Gaston also scored the game's first goal at the other end of the field, giving Lake Forest a 3-0 lead 45 seconds into the second quarter. The Spartans, however, accounted for the game's next three goals and the score was tied 3-3 at halftime.

Dousevisz put Lake Forest back on top 19 seconds into the third quarter and, after Dubuque drew even again at the 11:07 mark, he gave the home team the lead for good on a man-up goal with 7:59 on the clock. Forester freshman Tyler Dearmin and Macklin Thomas added to the lead before a tally by Dubuque made the score 7-5 going into the fourth.

Lake Forest's lead looks safe after a goal by junior John Casey and the fourth of the game for Dousevicz made the score 9-5 with 11 minute to play. Dubuque, however, rallied and was able to trim the margin to a single goal by the midpoint of the period. Twenty second later, however, Carson Pagel became the third Forester freshman to score in the contest, making it a 10-8 game. Neither team added to its goal total in the final 7:12 and the Foresters celebrated when the clock reached zero.

Junior Connor Tartaglione led Lake Forest with six ground balls while Dousevicz added five. The Foresters had a 43-32 edge in that category as a team. Junior Conor Murphy had a team-high three caused turnovers and classmates Dominic Lewis and Otto Baumann added two apiece.

Ten of the Spartans' 18 shots on goal in the game were turned away by Forester junior goalie Andrew Widlar, who surpassed 100 saves on the season and earned his 30th career victory.

Now on a program record eight-game winning streak, Lake Forest improved to 13-1 overall and finished its MLC schedule with a perfect 4-0 mark. Dubuque fell to 8-6 overall and 2-1 in the league.

The Foresters will close out the regular season with a non-conference game at Calvin University next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. (ET).