Box Score It was too much Ben Royce for the Carthage College men's soccer team (12-6-1, 4-2-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) on Friday evening, Nov. 1, as Wisconsin-Superior (10-6-3) defeated the Red Men, 4-2, at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis.
The loss to UW-Superior snapped Carthage's nine-game home winning streak this season , as well as a 13-game unbeaten streak that stretched back to the 2012 season.
Royce scored all four Yellowjacket goals, two in the first half and two in the second, to set a Carthage-opponent game record. The existing mark of three goals was set by Nate Williams from Wheaton College (Ill.) on Sept. 27, 1995.
Wisconsin-Superior took a 1-0 lead at 13:00 on a penalty-kick goal by Ben Royce. Carthage tied the game, 1-1, when
Michael Dombrowski (Jr., Johnsburg, Ill.) scored his 12th goal of the year at 24:47, assisted by
Atli Einarsson. Royce scored again at 31:43, unassisted, and at 34:04, assisted by Karl Schmidtke, to put the Yellowjackets up by a 3-1 margin at halftime.
The Red Men cut the lead to 3-2 at 50:14 on an unassisted goal by
Alexander Marquis (Jr., Caracas, Venezuela), but Royce scored his fourth goal at 84:46, also unassisted, for the final, 4-2 margin. Carthage out-shot Wisconsin-Superior, 28-10, including a 15-6 edge in shots-on-goal.
Carthage, ranked third in the Oct. 30 NCAA Division III Central Region poll, opens play in the CCIW Men's Soccer Tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 6 with a 7 p.m. semifinal game versus Elmhurst College (11-3-3, 4-1-2 CCIW) at Langhorst Field in Elmhurst, Ill. The Red Men are the tournament's third-seeded team and the Bluejays second.
In the other semifinal game, top-seeded and CCIW-champion Wheaton College (Ill., 15-3-1, 6-0-1 CCIW)) plays host to fourth-seeded North Park University (11-5-2, 4-2-1) on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at Joe Bean Stadium in Wheaton, Ill. The highest-remaining seed following the semifinals will play host to the Saturday, Nov. 9 championship game, with that winner earning the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship.
