Boys lacrosse: Vernon Hills takes down Hoffman Estates

Vernon Hills' boys lacrosse team used a fast start in its 6-2 win in the first round of the Hoffman Estates Spring Break Tune-Up Tournament Tuesday afternoon.

The Cougars, now 3-1 broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter over the host Hawks (2-3).

Junior Adrian Szwejkowski scored the first goal for Vernon Hills with 9:08 left in the first quarter. Joe Zimmerman, who had 2 assists, assisted on the goal.

"Scoring that first one was big for us," said Szwejkowski. "It got our momentum up and going to help us put three scores up on the board. The win over Barrington on Saturday helped motivate us for today."

Luke Lutgens and Nate Tran also scored for the Cougars in the first quarter. Vernon Hills' defense, led by Tyler Paszko, Jimmy McDonald and Nick Forster, limited the Hawks to just 2 shots in the quarter.

"It was a good quarter for us," said Vernon Hills coach Mike Curtin. "We had good senior leadership out there today. This tournament is a good chance to get other players some minutes."

Zach Nashalman scored the Hawks' 2 goals in the second quarter, the first cutting the gap to 3-1 with 8:59 left in the quarter, and the second with 3:38 left to close to within 5-2.

Tran, who scored his second goal, Paszko and McDonald tallied for the Cougars, who led 6-2 at the break.

"We gave up three goals in the first quarter and when you do that it's tough to come back," said Hoffman Estates coach Joe Garofalo." We were a little sloppy to start the game but then we played pretty good defense the rest of the game. You just can't put yourself in a hole like that."

Hawks goaltender Nathan Vann recorded 7 of his 10 saves in the second half.

"Vann played very well for us today," said Garofalo. "He has been very steady for us so far."

Goalie Jeremy Getlin only needed to make 4 saves for the Cougars in the win.

"I think we played some great defense today," said Paszko. "We had real good communication and footwork. If you don't have those two things going, you're just running and swinging your stick. This was a great chance to get some of the other players in the game which will help us as the season goes on."

"Hoffman changed things up on us in the second half," said Curtin. "They switched from a man-to-man defense to a zone. We had some trouble with that but we had a chance to work with our offense on that. We really had a good effort in this game."