LISLE, Ill. - The Benedictine University men's soccer team closed out the non-conference portion of the schedule by surviving a flurry from Lake Forest in a 3-2 decision on Thursday night during senior night.

Benedictine became an opportunistic team on the offensive end, making the most of counters created after many Lake Forest challenges. Lake Forest, out of the Midwest Conference, recorded two shots and two corners in the first three minutes, but Benedictine opened the scoring in the eighth minute following an offside call. Nick Kapetanos netted his 15th goal of the year after speeding past the keeper and burying the ball into an open net on the first attempt for the home team. Ante Markotic provided the helper. Markotic made the score 2-0 in the 32nd minute by banging home a re-direct from Gio Ovalle and Kapetanos.



"That was a good victory for us tonight against a Lake Forest side which was in the NCAA Tournament last season," head coach Rich Nassif said. "It is always tough to step out of the conference title quest and keep the intensity where it needs to be. That certainly was a mature showing for our young team to come out the first 45 minutes and play our way to a deserved 2-0 halftime lead."

Lake Forest came out strong to open the second, attempting seven shots before striking in the 67th minute to scrape within 2-1. The frantic pace continued for both sides and Benedictine was able to extend the margin in the 84th minute on another Kapetanos goal, converting on a diving header off a corner from Edgar Reyes. Steve Mack stopped three consecutive shots in net before Lake Forest clawed within 3-2 in the 88th minute.

"We struggled to play positive in the second half and their first goal coming off our attacking set piece really gave them life," added Nassif. "I thought up to that point, despite how much ground we had given them, we did a good enough job of keeping them from breaking us down. Their shots were primarily from distance or from predictable spots."

Lake Forest put together 22 shots, including 16 in the second half. Mack recorded seven saves. Benedictine finished with 12 shots in the contest including six on goal. Kapetanos logged six in the win.

"We got the late goal off a corner to respond and I thought we would seal the game away from there," stated Nassif. "We certainly were not happy with the finish to the game and that simply shows we have a long way to go in learning how win close games. We will take those lessons from a victory and move on to a tough road match at Marian."

Benedictine (9-6-1) returns to conference play on Saturday afternoon at Marian.