RIPON, Wis. - Playing in the first game of his collegiate career, Ripon's Paul Karls didn't seem nervous at all. The freshman Forward scored his first career goal just three and a half minutes into the game. He wasn't done there, adding another three minutes later and yet another in the 18th minute, finishing with a hat trick in less than half of a period. That helped propel the Red Hawks to a 7-1 victory over Northland College, marking Ripon's first season-opening win since the 2012 season.

After Karls' scoring barrage, Northland stepped their game up, scoring on a Will Gibbens goal in the 34th minute. That was all the LumberJacks could muster however, as Ripon would get that goal back just before halftime on freshman Grant Grywalsky's first collegiate goal.

Yet another freshman, Brenden Raasch got into the scoring action in the 65th minute on assists from Karls and Josh Luna. The Red Hawks added two more goals for good measure later in the half, as Mherete Mherete and Gary Sexson scored within one minute of each other on assists from Wasani Davis and Luna, respectively.

Freshman Jimmy Amedeo started in goal for the Red Hawks and saved four shots in nearly 76 minutes of action. His counterpart, Colton Schreyer played the entire game, making seven saves. Ripon held a shot advantage of 22-6 in the game, with 14 of their shots coming in the second half.

The Red Hawks will be in action again on Saturday when they'll host Bethany Lutheran at 4:30 p.m. That game will take place at Prairie Field in Ripon and can be seen live at,http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/#.