KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's soccer team picked up a much-needed win on Saturday night on Art Keller Field, defeating the Carroll University Pioneers, 1-0.
 
The win, which snaps a three-game losing streak, improves the Red Men to 4-4 on the season and gives Carthage the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin opening win, while Carroll falls to 0-8-1 and 0-1 in the CCIW.
 
The Red Men had their first great opportunity less that ten minutes into the match as Nicholas Messineo received a ball over from the back and got behind the defense for a one-on-one, which the Pioneer goalkeeper made a sliding save to prevent the early scoreless match.
 
The opening goal continued to elude the Red Men in the 19th minute, as a ball through the defense by Adrian Herrera set Xavian Cruz up from close, but his shot hit the post and was knocked out for a corner.
 
It looked like Carroll was going to break the scoreless tie about midway through the second half, but Niko Mavrogiannis came up with his biggest save of the game, diving to his left to stop a penalty kick in the 67th minute.  Niko matched his career-high with his second-straight game with eight saves and earned his second clean sheet of the year in the win.
 
Two minutes later it proved to have big dividends for the Red Men when a corner by Herrera was headed back across the goal from the back post and tapped in by Jeff Montemayor for the lone goal of the game in the 69th minute.  For Jeff, the goal is the first of 2018 and the second of his career.
 
Next up for the Red Men, Carthage will head back to Michigan for the third straight week as Carthage visits Albion College for a midweek matchup.  The Red Men and Britons will faceoff on Tuesday, September 25th at 4:00 p.m. CT.