KENOSHA, WIS.—The Carthage College men's lacrosse team opened their home schedule with a Saturday-tilt against Hope College, who played their first game of the season. This marks the third time in as many games Carthage has played an opponent without game experience. This continued to bode well for the Red Men as they notched a 9-4 victory over the Flying Dutchmen.
 
The dynamic duo of Brody Ilstrup and Andy Szun showed up again as they accounted for seven of Carthage's nine goals. Illstrup tallied four goals while Szun added a hat trick and one assist. Luke Seydel and Colin Poitras scored the other Carthage goals.
 
Nine penalties were called for a 7:30 total. The Red Men were a victim of four of those penalties for 4:00, but capitalized on a 2-of-5 mark on man-up opportunities. Carthage held advantages in shots (41-18) and ground balls (32-22). Andy Meyers took all of the Red Men's face-offs, and posted an 11-of-16 figure in the process. Joe Poremba posted three of Carthage's 10 caused turnovers in the game. Red Men Goalkeeper Zerik Rodriguez improved to 3-0 on the season with seven saves in 60:00 of work. Carthage also finished the game with a 23-of-25 mark in clear attempts.

"We definitely didn't play our best today, especially offensively," said Red Men head coach David Neff. "With that said, the guys really found a way to grind things out and win. I thought a really young defense stepped up and ran our game plan. Zerik played well, but Hope played a really good game on the defensive side and forced us to break out of our comfort zone offensively." 

The Red Men improve to 3-0, 0-0 CCIW while Hope falls to 0-1, 0-0 MIAA.
 
Red Men 9, Hope 4
 
The Red Men found themselves in a 1-0 hole to the Flying Dutchmen before goals from Ilstrup and Poitras gave Carthage a 2-1 edge after the opening frame. Hope duplicated their first quarter as they set the tone again with Rocci Mularoni's goal at the 13:17 mark of the second to knot the game 2-2.
 
A pair second-quarter penalties called on the Flying Dutchmen haunted them, as Carthage responded with a 4-0 run thanks to two man-up goals that pushed their lead to 6-2 at halftime.
 
Hope and Carthage battled to a 1-1 third quarter, capped by Szun's goal at the final second to make the score 7-3 heading into the final 15:00. Hope set the tone for the frame once again in the fourth quarter to make the score 7-4 at the 8:25 mark, but a pair of Carthage goals within the final 3:00 sealed a 9-4 victory for them.
 
The Red Men will return to action on Sunday, March 4 at Hanover College. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. (ET).