The Forester men's lacrosse team began its 2025 season with an 11-9 loss to Carthage College at home on Saturday.

For the second time in his career, senior John Casey scored Lake Forest's first goal of the season. He was assisted by freshman John Shannon and gave the home team the early lead less than two minutes into the contest. After Carthage tied the score just six seconds later, senior Chas Dean regained the lead for the Forester at the 8:03 mark. The Firebirds evened the score again with 5:56 to play in the quarter, which ended with the teams tied at two.

Three consecutive Carthage goals in the second gave the visitors the lead for good. Forester sophomore Andrew Koch, who set up Dean's score earlier, ended the run with his first collegiate goal and the scored was 5-3 in favor of the Firebirds at halftime.

Lake Forest called a timeout after a pair of Firebird scores made it a 7-3 game early in the third period. The Foresters responded with scores from Shannon and senior Bode Rubright but got no closer as the teams traded goals the rest of the way.

The Carthage lead was trimmed back to two by junior Brendan Herbert late in the third quarter, Casey early in the fourth, Herbert again with 8:21 remaining, and sophomore Macklin Thomas with 1:47 on the clock.

Herbert led the Foresters with four ground balls and senior Conor Murphy with four caused turnovers.

Lake Forest senior goalie Andrew Widlar made 11 saves in the contest but was unable to prevent Carthage from improving to 2-0 on the season.

The Foresters will play at home again next Saturday when they take on Calvin University on Farwell Field at 2:00 p.m.