HAMPDEN-SYDNEY, Va. -- After settling in with a quality start over seven straight home games to open the season, the nationally-ranked Captains looked equally as comfortable on the road Wednesday night as they rolled to a 4-0 win at Hampden-Sydney College (5-2-2). Christopher Newport improved to 7-1-0 after four different goal scorers chipped in with two goals in each half.

Back-to-back goals in the first 15 minutes gave the visiting Captains an early cushion to work with as senior Kyle Stenzel recorded his second goal of the year to kick things off. After a caution was issued to Hampden-Sydney, senior Ryan Machado-Jones stepped up to take the free kick on the set piece close to the box. He chipped a perfect ball to the near post and Stenzel leaped over his defender to head home the eventual gamewinner. 

The goal came just 11:13 into the match and would be doubled by the time 14 minutes had expired. The Captains quickly added a second goal on their next run down the field when Chris Schram got loose near the goal line. He slipped a pass across the goal mouth to Elton Quintanilla, who was all alone for a hard shot into the middle of the goal. 

CNU outshot the Tigers in the first half, 7-4, including a 3-2 advantage in shots on goal. Senior goalkeeper Ethan Larson turned away both chances by the home team, helping hold onto the early two-goal lead. 

In the opening stages of the second half, the Captains looked to put the game away with the third goal in the 51st minute. Staying hot with his third goal in the last four games, senior Brendan Todd finished off a double assist from Machado-Jones and Barry Jones. Finally, Christopher Newport put the punctuation mark on the offensive outburst with a fourth goal in the 85th minute when Jonathon Leiding found Alex Risko for the score. 

CNU took 14 shots in the game, putting seven on-goal, while Hampden-Sydney managed the same total. Larson made a career-high six saves in the contest while Dom Stumpo came on for the final six minutes and picked up a save as well. 

The Captains are off to the team's best eight-game start since 2015 when the team started 7-0-1 and went on to post a 13-match unbeaten streak to start the year. 

CNU will be back in action on Saturday, October 1 when they travel to face No. 2 Messiah (8-0-1) for a 6:00 pm kickoff against the Falcons.