The Lake Forest College men's lacrosse team prevailed 12-11 in overtime on Wednesday at top-seeded Aurora University in the semifinals of the 2026 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament.
Since joining the NACC last year the Foresters had been 0-3 against the Spartans, who had won their last 46 games against conference opponents, a streak dating back to the start of the 2022 season.
Wednesday's game was close throughout with six lead changes and neither team ahead by more than a goal at any point. Both teams won 13 faceoffs, put 22 shots on goal, and committed 15 turnovers.
The difference turned out to be the two shots in overtime. Aurora attempted the first but Lake Forest sophomore goalie
Billy Draper made his career-high ninth save of the game and secured the ball. The Foresters cleared, finished killing a penalty and called time out. Senior
Carson Pagel, who already had four goals and three assists on the day, then found sophomore
Jackson Derosia for a wide open shot from the right side. The ball hit the net just inside the left post for the upset victory.
Pagel also assisted Derosia on the final goal of regulation, tying the game at 11 with 98 seconds to play. Derosia's second career hat trick gave him 15 tallies on the season while Pagel's career-best eight-point performance lifted him into the team lead in that category with 27 goals and 16 assists. He also climbed into seventh place in program history with 101 points in his career.
Sophomore
Aidan Wigton also had a hat trick and added an assist on Wednesday. He leads the squad with 31 goals on the year. The visitors also got scores from senior
Brant Schuckman and freshman
Liam Smith.
Junior
Gabe Boston was 12-12 on faceoffs and tied junior defenseman
Liam Bradley for the team lead in ground balls with four. Meanwhile junior
Judson Norris matched his career high with four caused turnovers and is now tied-for-fourth in team annals with 48 in his career.
Lake Forest led 2-1 at the end of the first quarter but trailed 5-4 at halftime. Smith's goal with 1:14 to play in the third made it an 8-8 game going into the final period.
Wednesday's victory raised the Foresters' record this season to 11-6 while Aurora finished the season 13-4.
Lake Forest will travel to Concordia University Wisconsin for Saturday's NACC Tournament final, which will begin at 1:00 p.m.
