BARRINGTON, ILL.-The Carthage College men's lacrosse team opened the 2017 season with a 21-5 victory over Northland College, and a 14-5 win over Hope College on Friday afternoon at the Canlan Sportsplex in Barrington, Ill.
 
The victories give Carthage a 2-0, 0-0 CCIW record to begin the 2017 campaign.
 
Red Men 21, Northland College 5
 
Northland, in their first season of existence, are led by head coach and Carthage alum Jack Meachum. The Lumberjacks tallied five goals in their first game ever, but they were no match for the Red Men.
 
Carthage held a 58-14 advantage in shots, a 25-5 lead in faceoffs, and a 45-19 edge in ground balls.
 
Matt Curran, who tallied one goal all of last season, found the back of the net three times in the first quarter to propel Carthage to a 6-1 lead. Andrew Henderson notched the Lumberjacks' lone goal in the frame with 8:50 left to narrow their deficit to 3-1. That was Northland's first goal in program history.
 
Among Carthage's six goals scored in the opening frame was their first man-up tally of the season, scored by Ethan Flight at the 2:18 mark to make the score 6-1.
 
Gavin Kaepernick capped off a 3-0 Carthage run with his first collegiate goal at the 5:46 mark of the second quarter to widen the score to 9-1.  Northland's only shot the remainder of the second quarter found the back of the net with 5:03 left to narrow the margin to 9-2. Carthage outshot Northland 6-0 from that point until halftime. Two of those shots beat goalkeeper Luke Sandberg to make the score 11-2.
 
The Lumberjacks opened the third frame with two goals before Curran tallied his fifth of the contest with 7:27 left to extend Carthage's lead to 12-4. Four of the Red Men's next 11 shots found the back of the net to widen the margin to 15-4 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Carthage matched their first quarter with a 6-1 advantage in the fourth to secure a 21-5 win.
 
Matt Curran (five goals) and Morgan (three goals, two assists) led the Red Men in scoring. Morgan also had a hand in two caused turnovers. Cameron Laird received the goalkeeping win for Carthage.
 
Red Men 14, Hope 5
 
Billy Lane tallied a pair of goals in the opening session to lift Carthage to a 4-1 advantage. After Hope cut Carthage's lead in half at 4-2, Curran responded with his sixth tally of the season at the 12:22 mark of the second quarter to make the score 5-2.
 
The Red Men held an 8-2 edge in shots the rest of the frame, which resulted in one goal. The tally was Lane's fourth of the season at the 10:57 mark of the second, which made the score 6-2.
 
The third quarter was all Andy Szun, who notched four goals in the frame to propel Carthage to a 12-4 lead heading into the fourth.  Fourth-quarter goals from Andrew Krom and Ethan Flight put the icing on the cake in a 14-5 victory.
 
Carthage outshot Hope 44-17 in the contest.
 
Jordyn Williams returned to the lineup with six ground balls and a game-high six caused turnovers for the Red Men.  Andy Meyers went 15-of-20 in the faceoff circle for Carthage. Ryan Smith secured the goaltending win with three saves in 38:51 of work.
 
Carthage will return to action on Sunday, February 19 at Rhodes College. Game time is set for 12:00 p.m.