Boys lacrosse: Hoffman Estates routs Conant

The Conant vs. Hoffman Estates boys lacrosse battle of was a one-sided affair for the host Hawks Thursday night.

Hoffman Estates broke out to a 4-0 first quarter and never looked back in its 17-3 win over the Cougars.

"We were getting the face off which led to good possessions," said Hawks coach Joe Garofalo. "When we start fast we usually do pretty good. If we don't then we struggle."

Hoffman Estates upped its record to 5-8 and is 1-1 in the Mid-Suburban West. Conant, which had been playing well the last few weeks, dropped to 2-9 and 0-3 in conference play.

"This is not the way I thought it would go tonight," said Conant coach Nico Vega. "This is not the way we've been improving the past few weeks. Today we did not take that next step forward. We had been playing some pretty competitive ball. We just weren't focused."

Hoffman Estates senior attackers Zach Nashalman and Drew Eiring were focused on the Cougars' net.

Nashalman, who is closing in on the school single-season scoring record of 73 goals, scored 6 times and had 2 assists. Nashalman has 59 goals for the season. Eiring connected for 5 goals.

"Zach and I have been playing together for a long time," said Eiring. "We see each other on the field and we were really clicking tonight. We were able to find the openings in their defense and were able to get some scores."

Nashalman and Ering each scored three times in the first half to stake the Hawks to an 8-0 lead with 4:57 left.

The Cougars put their first goal on the board on Nick Reyes' shot with 1:55 remaining before the break.

The Hawks put the game out of reach with an 8-0 third quarter for a 16-1 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Aaron Drawer scored 2 goals for the Cougars in the fourth quarter.

Anar Tumubaatar had a nice game with two goals and 3 assists for the Hawks.

"A lot of our offense starts with Anar," said Garofalo. "He finds Zach and Drew on the field. He's pretty valuable."

Hoffman Estates still has a chance for a conference crown.

"We know we have some good games coming up in the conference in Fremd, Schaumburg and Palatine," said Nashalman. "We think we have the ability to win those games. We have some good scorers on this team."

"I'm really happy for my teammates who scored their first goals of the year, " said Eiring of Gregorio Ramirez and John Mulica. "Zach just made some great shots tonight including the one-handed behind the back goal. We always play hard in practice and it carries to the game. This is such a fun game and the sport is growing. I'd really like to see it keep growing."