Contact: Matthew Eaker, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, mreaker@noctrl.edu 

Box Score

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Apr. 22, 2023) - The North Central College men's lacrosse team used a seven goal second quarter to stay on top of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) standings as they knocked off Carthage College 14-8 on Saturday afternoon at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. 

The Cardinals (9-4, 4-0 CCIW) and Firebirds (10-4, 2-2 CCIW) met twice last season, with the Firebirds winning the first meeting in overtime but the Cardinals got their revenge in the CCIW semifinals with an 18-14 win to advance to the conference finals. 

The eighth meeting between the two schools started with Carthage taking an early lead as Colin Poitras finished off an Andrew Frey pass to put the visitors up 1-0. Two minutes later, Nick Rubino netted the equalizer with 11:08 remaining in the first quarter. The Cardinals scoring streak would continue as they closed out the first quarter with three unanswered goals, one from Jack Moran and two from Rylan McQueary to give the Cardinals a 4-1 lead. 

In the second quarter, Moran found Rubino for the Cardinals fifth goal of the game just 28 seconds into the period. The Firebirds would respond as Andrew Frey and Colin Poitras put them within two. Joey D'Cunha found the back of the net for the first time of the night with 6:07 remaining in the second before Rubino fired a shot past the Firebirds goalkeeper to give the Cardinals a 7-3 lead. After a Firebirds goal, the Cardinals rattled off four unanswered goals to send them into halftime with an 11-4 lead. 

North Central kept finding success in the second period as D'Cunha and Rubino connected for another goal to put the Cardinals up 12-4 with 11:12 remaining in the third. The Firebirds cut the lead to six as Frey and Alec Gern found the back of the net. After a Firebirds penalty, Moran found D'Cunha for a man-up goal to give the Cardinals a 13-6 lead heading into the final quarter of play. 

The fourth quarter started off with D'Cunha netting his fifth goal of the game off a Rubino pass with 11:46 to play in the game. The Cardinal offense stalled and Carthage scored the final two goals of the game but it wasn't enough as the Cardinals improved to 10-4 on the season and 4-0 in CCIW play. 

D'Cunha led all scorers with five goals, a career and season-high, while Rubino scored four goals. Moran dished out a season-high five assists and Rubino tallied two assists in the win. Trenton Herubin led the team with two caused turnovers while scooping up two ground balls. Jake Allgood tallied fourteen saves in the contest as he improved to 5-4 on the season. 

The Cardinals welcome Illinois Wesleyan University to Benedetti–Wehrli Stadium on Wednesday, April 26 at 7 pm, the winner will be crowned the CCIW Regular Season Champion. 

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