BEVERLY, Mass. – The Carthage College Red Men showed no signs of fatigue Friday, September 2nd, moving to 2-0 on the young season with a 4-1 win over Endicott College in their opening match of the North Shore Invitational.
 
Now, with 10 goals on the year, the Red Men's 2-0 record to open the season is the best start since 1997, while it is only the third time in program history they have opened with two wins.
 
It wasn't all roses for the Red Men as the Gulls opened the scoring in the 24th minute when Evan Couchot beat Carthage goalkeeper Niko Mavrogiannis to put the Red Men down 1-0.

This lit a fire under the Red Men though.
 
The lead was short lived for the Gulls however, as sophomore captain Kevin Mahoney, who sat out Thursday's game, scored the equalizer on a shot high arching shot placed beyond the keepers reach tied it in the 33rd minute.

"A lot of value was taken from here tonight," said head coach Steve Domin.  "Going on the road to play a conference championship team in their first match of the season after a quality deep NCAA run is always a tall order. Particularly in their own tournament.  Couple that with a slow start and conceding the first goal of the match, you always wonder how you will respond?"
 
Despite dominating the remainder of the first half and the opening of the second, the Red Men still found themselves tied with Endicott heading to the 77th minute.  Limiting the Gulls to very few opportunities thanks to the play of Mavrogiannis' backline which included Erik Boese, Giles Phillips, Matt Rojel and Jamie Tausend.  The Carthage defense limited EC to just three second half shots and 11 on the game, requiring Mavrogiannis to make three saves, only one of which came after the opening goal, to pick up his second win of the season.

"After weathering a 15 minute storm of energy we made some adjustments and settled in well, keeping the ball on the floor."  Domin went on to say, "True character is exhibited in times of adversity, and battling like we did after our first real test I feel good we can make some moves to fit any game style."
 
Just as it looked as though Endicott was going to somehow avoid falling behind, the flood gates opened and the Carthage offense started filling the net with goals.
 
Kevin Mahoney broke the tie in the 77th minute with his second of the game off a header from a Tausend delivery.
 
Jamie Tausend put the game away nine minutes later with his first goal of the season off a header from Johnny Rimkus in the 86th minute.
 
Carthage's trio of captains then teamed-up to ice the game as Austin Bitta, who delivered the assist on Mahoney's first goal, found himself behind the Gulls defense a minute later on a combination play from Phillips and Mahoney, which Bitta slotted past the keeper to conclude the scoring at 4-1.

"The men of the match were certainly Mahoney, Bitta and Jeff Montemayor, with Michael Modesti changing the culture of their attack single handedly from the outside midfield spot," pointeed out Domin.
 
The Red Men will wrap-up their ten-day trip to Boston with their third game in three days, as Carthage takes on Gordon College in their second game of the North Shore Invitational.  The game is slated for 7:00 p.m. ET from Gordon in Wenham, Mass.
 
"What's nice is we used a lot of guys yesterday and a lot today.  There is little time to feel good about ourselves as we have another top 20-team in the back half of the tourney staring us in the face Saturday"