The first weekend of the Joe Rautenstrauch era is in the John Carroll University men's lacrosse history books.
 
After a Saturday night thrashing of Oberlin College, the Blue and Gold fell victim to NCAA Division I opponent and host of the Sixth City Showdown, Cleveland State University, 15-8.
 
The host Vikings earned wins over NCAA Division III and Ohio Athletic Conference programs Baldwin Wallace University and John Carroll this weekend for their first two victories in program history. Cleveland State had started out 0-3 with losses to Bellarmine (13-7), the University of Michigan (13-8) and No. 7 Duke University (22-7).
 
John Carroll moves to 1-1 on the year, but Rauntenstrauch is excited to see where the team is heading after the first weekend of play.

"Overall it was a good experience. Getting the first win out of the way was huge," Rautenstrauch said, "Overall good weekend, but we will watch the film and get better. We are onto Wooster."          
 
Rautenstrauch will have his home debut in the Blue Streaks' next game against The College of Wooster on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 12:00 p.m.
 
Skyler Blake, MacGregor Roberts and Connor Pike all registered two goals in the clash with Cleveland State. This is also the second consecutive multi-goal game for all three of the Blue Streaks' scorers.
 
Cleveland State scored the first goal in the game just 10 seconds into the contest. The Blue Streaks would find an equalizer with just under 11 minutes to play in the opening frame, thanks to a Pike goal. Two different pairs of Cleveland State goals would be separated by a Roberts scoring tally, settling the first quarter score at 5-2 in favor of the hosting Vikings.
 
Blake and Roberts would combine to score two of the first three goals in the second quarter, bringing the game to a 6-4 Cleveland State lead. The Vikings would then rattle off seven unanswered goals to take a 13-4 lead into the halftime break.
 
It would be a different half for both sides.
 
John Carroll started the third quarter with back-to-back goals, courtesy of Pike and Blake. The two tallies from the Blue Streaks were two of the only three scores from the third quarter.
 
The Blue and Gold would then answer on the man advantage after Colin Rice slotted home a scoring tally for the Blue Streaks. Defensive men Tommy Adolf would then etch his name in the score sheet with a late fourth quarter goal. Adolf's goal would be his second scoring tally of his career and the first since the 2015 season.