KENOSHA, Wis. — The offense opened up for the Carthage men's lacrosse team on Saturday, as they took down Alma College 18-7 at Art Keller Field.
While the visitors were first on the scoreboard, the Firebirds (5-0) responded with four unanswered goals, as Alec Gern tied the game at one before George Burchfield scored back-to-back goals in a span of just over one minute. Andrew Johnson would make it a 4-1 game, before the Scots (2-4) would make it a 4-2 game at the end of the first quarter.
Burchfield found the back of the net once again to start the second period, before Alma made it a one-score game with two goals to set the score at 5-4. However, Carthage scored four unanswered once again, as they would take a 9-4 lead into the locker room for halftime.
Goals by Andrew Frey, Burchfield, and Gern put the Firebirds up 12-4 to begin the second half, with the home team leading by eight as the two teams went to the fourth quarter. Yet another run of four goals for Carthage extended their lead further, before a goal by Alma in the final seconds set the board at 18-7 in favor of the Firebirds, holding their undefeated record to begin the 2022 season.
Carthage will travel south for their spring break trip next, as they take on Berry College on Tuesday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET.
"George played an absolutely great game today, best of his career. I thought the offense overall looked pretty solid, we needed to get them the ball more with better clearing, but they made the most of their touches. With Blake out these past two games we wanted to get both Kyle and Hayden a start, so today was Hayden's shot and he had a great day in the pipes with 18 saves. Congrats to him also on his first college win. Decision making and execution in the middle of the field cost us a couple goals on both ends so we will need to clean that up over Spring Break. We also need to still get better at first ground ball opportunities. Berry and BSC are 10 and one in region and good on both ends of the field so we need to raise our level of play after today."
"Our faceoffs were really strong today as well. Alma has had a great deal of success there against good teams, and to be above fifty percent today was a big boost for us."
Quick Facts
- George Burchfield scored a career-best six goals today, tying him for the eighth-most goals in a single game in school history.
- Freshman Ben Krok had a career-best four assists against the Scots today.
- Sam Wallace accumulated four ground balls today, and leads the CCIW with 13 in four games played this season.
- With 18 saves today, Hayden Jones tied for the seventh-most in a single game at Carthage.
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