The monitor beeped and flashed.

Doctors swarmed into the room, concern creased on their faces, worry in their wide eyes.

Carson Laconi knew something was wrong.

He was hot. Sweating. His vision blurred. He felt as if he was about to faint.

Blood was pouring out from a laceration to his spleen.

He needed emergency surgery or he would die.

Carson Laconi was scared.

“You never know what can happen,” Laconi said.

What happened was a typical play in a typical high school lacrosse game Tuesday.

Laconi, a junior at North Catholic, was rushing the Mars net and uncorked a shot.

It went in. Goal.

But Laconi was also hit on the play in his left side. He went down to the turf hard.

It was nothing knew for Laconi, a Butler resident. Laconi and contact go together like Friday nights and high school football.

As a safety for the Trojans, Laconi dishes out his fair share of punishment.

And he knows how to take it.

This was different, though, and Laconi knew it at halftime of the lacrosse game Tuesday.

The North Catholic trainer suggested he go to the hospital for a possible broken rib and concussion.

It turned out to be far more serious.

It didn't take long for doctors at Butler Memorial Hospital to diagnose a lacerated spleen.

The plan was to transport Laconi by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, but the weather was too poor to fly.

Laconi was instead taken to Pittsburgh in an ambulance.

By the time he arrived at AGH, his condition was worsening.

Doctors still thought they could repair the spleen intead of removing it. But when Laconi's vital signs began to crash, emergency surgery was the only option.

“The timing, getting down here to AGH, was something else,” Laconi said. “All the doctors knew how to respond immediately and I'm so thankful for them. It was scary, seeing the doctors talk to my mom.”

The surgery was a success and Laconi should make a full recovery.

“And I have a nasty scar,” he joked from his hospital bed. He hopes to be released Friday.

Laconi has a rich sense of humor, but he is also very serious about his academics and athletics.

He sports a 3.38 GPA and has already received interest from several Patriot League colleges for football.

Bucknell has already made him a scholarship offer.

Laconi, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound hard-hitting defensive back, hasn't committed yet, but he knows the Patriot Leadue is where he wants to play.

It's a Division I football conference with rich academic history.

“The education is Ivy-League level,” Laconi said. “And the football is really good. That's where I see myself becoming a really good player.”

Laconi also wants to challenge himself in the classroom.

“My mom's a teacher in the Butler School District,” Laconi said. “Both my parents always taught me academics are going to take you farther than sports. I've really taken pride in the classroom and taken that to heart.”

Laconi has the same level of pride on the field.

Fearless, he flies around the field, putting his body on the line.

That's why he said it was a bit ironic that his severe injury would happen while playing lacrosse, not football.

“Lacrosse is a contact sport and any contact sport, you have a risk,” Laconi said. “This was kind of a fluke thing.”

Laconi entered his junior year with the North Catholic football team in a quarterback battle with Joey Prentice, who eventually won the job.

But when Prentice suffered injuries late in the year, Laconi stepped in a play admirably as the back-up.

“The coaches always kept me on top of things,” Laconi said. “They always prepared me for that worst case scenario by making sure I got some reps in case I needed to step in. When that actually came to fruition, I was ready.”

Laconi said being a quarterback has aided him on the defensive side of the ball.

He knows how a QB thinks and can anticipate plays much more quickly.

Laconi hopes to become a complete player on defense at the next level — a defensive back who can blanket receivers and hit them hard, too.

“I see myself as a guy who can really fill the gaps and come up and hit people and still be able to cover whether it's zone or man,” Laconi said. “I really love to watch film and study opponents, what the quarterback likes to do, what his tendencies are, what does he like to do in certain situations.”

That's all Laconi will be able to do now for at least eight weeks — watch film.

It will take time for him to heal.

But Laconi is sure he will.

He's sure he will be back in the fall, prowling the secondary, looking for that next big hit.

Deep down, though, Laconi is grateful for everything now. Things both big and little.

He's happy to be alive.

“My outlook on life has already changed,” Laconi said. “You can't take anything for granted. You have to strive to be your best each day and live your life to the fullest because you never know how quickly it can be taken away. I realized in seconds my life can be gone.”