KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Carthage College Red Men finished their four-game road swing to open the season on a high note Wednesday afternoon, defeating the Hornets of Kalamazoo College in Michigan, 3-1.
The win sends the Red Men to 3-1, while the Hornets fall to 1-4 with the loss.
"Frankly, we didn't play well today," said head coach
Steve Domin following the win. "We are banged up, tired and over traveled. It's been an odd year in that regard, but think it is building great character. What I would say is if you play below your standards, on the road and win, it's still a good day and sign of a good team."
After a scare in the opening three minutes of the match, which the Red Men escaped without allowing a goal courtesy of a goal line clearance and save by the post, the Red Men quickly capitalized off the Hornets' misfortune.
Carthage took advantage of a failed clear by the Kalamazoo goalkeeper by taking control of the ball in the offensive half and after a few short passes,
Adrian Herrera slipped a ball behind the defense and onto the foot of
Jerry Patino, who slotted it under the charging keeper for the 1-0 lead in the seventh minute.
Despite being outshot in the half, 8-7, the Red Men made their lone attempt on goal count as it carried their 1-0 lead into the halftime break.
Carthage turned things around statistically with a strong second half, which saw Red Men earn a 8-5 edge in shots and 8-1 advantage in corner kicks.
Patino added his second goal of the match and third of the season in the 65th minute off an assist from
Jeff Montemayor, and
Ivan Esquivel added his third of the year as well, putting away the Red Men's final goal in the 82nd minute, assisted by Herrera and
Xavian Cruz.
The head coach added, "Today was a special match for
Adrian Herrera, Ivan, Jerry, and Jeff. I seldom like to single out individual players because in our program everyone has to mark, but today they carried us."
Kalamazoo got their lone goal off a free kick in the 87th minute, but
Niko Mavrogiannis made four saves to get his second win of the season.
The Red Men will return to action in the annual Battle on the Border Tournament with a pair of matches at Art Keller Field this weekend. Carthage will start the tournament against Loras College on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and will face Macalester College, Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
"I know people will look at the last eight or ten minutes and say we bleed the bench and conceded one, but we need to do that and get those opportunities to two-deep players. In order for us to go where we want to go we need everyone playing well," noted Domin. "Our schedule keeps keeping harder and we like it. Our tournament is annually a marque event in our part of the country with great teams annually. We will have our hands full playing back-to-back against a pair of highly ranked teams."
