KENOSHA, Wis. — After going down 4-0 to begin the first quarter, the Carthage men's lacrosse team stormed back to win 17-12 in a battle with Benedictine at Art Keller Field on Wednesday night.

With five minutes left in the first quarter, the visitors took a 4-0 advantage on the Firebirds (7-3) before Alec Gern made it a 4-1 first quarter. The home team would score five unanswered goals, as William Clemens, Ben Krok, and Andrew Johnson each found the back of the net to reclaim the lead 5-4. After the Eagles (4-4) tied the match at five, scores from Johnson and George Burchfield gave the home team a lead they would hold the remainder of the game.

While Benedictine scored first to begin the second half, the Firebirds rattled off four-straight to jump ahead 11-6. After leading by the end of the third period 14-9, Carthage battled a thick fog that rolled in to hold on for the five-point victory.

The Firebirds are set to host Augustana next to begin conference play, and will celebrate their seniors on Saturday, April 2 at 3:30 p.m.
 

Head Coach David Neff

"I am really proud of the guys tonight, this was a team win. Benedictine is an NCAA tournament team from last year, and they are led by two elite fifth-year seniors on offense. We were ready to play, but again. just came out and made too many mistakes in the first quarter. Our youth is our Achilles and tonight it got us down four early. We tried to get them settled down and I am so proud that the guys were able to bounce back from some adversity. That played out the rest of the game. Every time Benedictine made a move we were able to respond."
 
"Matt did a great job having the offense prepared for man and zone, and we hope he is okay after taking a shot in pre game. You can't ask for more than 17/22 on the shot on goal efficiency. Workman and Hayden gave us a chance to have some runs and I thought we were just good enough on defense against a really good offense. Clears were great today under tough conditions. Congratulations to Andrew on 100 points as well tonight. Time to get ready for the CCIW."
 

Quick Facts

• With six points tonight, Andrew Johnson collected the 100th point of his career.
• The sophomore ranks second in the CCIW so far this season with a 4.40 points per game average.
• Joining Johnson with six points tonight was George Burchfield, who has now posted six or more points in a single game three times this season.
• Blake Raphael picked up his fifth victory in goal this season for the Firebirds, and ranks second in the conference with 12.88 saves per game.

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