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Hawks On Target In Win Over Evanston

Hawks junior Bennett William Smith prepares to fire a shot during Maine South’s 18-5 win over Evanston Monday, May 23, 2022. (Kaleb Carter/Special to the Journal)

Whatever doubt that may have entered the Maine South Hawks’ mind was quickly snuffed out with a barrage of goals in the Hawks boys lacrosse team’s 18-5 win over Evanston in a sectional quarterfinal Monday at The Hill on Loyola’s Munz Campus in Glenview.

Sean Mullan scored 3 of his 6 goals in the first half, and 6 Hawks scored in the first half. A different Hawk scored the first 6 goals for the squad, as Maine South was well on its way to an 8-0 run spanning the first and second periods.

“They weren’t really pressing our hands, so coach told us to keep our feet moving and they would collapse and they did,” Mullan said.

Evanston (9-3, 3-4 CSL) went up 2-0 on two goals. Coach Rob Fournie of Evanston said that the last time the two played, a 13-6 Maine South win, the Wildkits had gone up quickly.

“We did this against them last time too,” Fournie said. “Went up three, we knew we could play, we could run with them. Our guys were super excited and ready to play, then we just sat back a little bit and gave it back to them.”

Bennett William Smith finally got the Hawks on the board with 3:59 left in the first period, then Sean Mullan showcased his stick skills with a fake and deposit over top of the Evanston goalie to tie the game 2-2. Just over a minute later, Michael Gardiner cranked a sidewinding shot into the net to push the Hawks ahead.

Maine South goalie Jack McKierney recorded a big save, just for good measure in the final minute of the period.

The Hawks ultimately produced multi-goal scoring efforts from William Smith (2), Will Guzaldo (2), Evan Rachmiel (2), Gardiner (2) and Mike Migon (2).

“We’ve really taken the steps forward as a program with our speed of the game, how quickly we play lacrosse and just get back to that,” Maine South coach Camerin Staffel said. “They (Evanston) were in a zone and we got really lazy just forcing passes.”

The Hawks made some personnel moves and had several players rotating and playing newer spots defensively.

“Some guys were sick, some stuff was happening so we’ve moved some people around,” Staffel said. “It shows. We have some athletic kids that can play.”

Maine South (14-6, finished second in CSL with 6-1 record) was set to face powerhouse New Trier on Wednesday.

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