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Wheaton College Athletics

Drew Golz
Michael Hudson Photography

Men's Soccer

Wheaton men's soccer lose 2-1 at North Park in CCIW Tournament

GAME STATS
PICTURED ABOVE: Senior Drew Golz scored his 10th goal of the season on Wednesday.

Chicago, Ill. - In a game that was tied most of the way, the Wheaton College men's soccer team dropped a 2-1 decision at North Park University in the CCIW Tournament semifinals on Wednesday.

The No. 3-seed Thunder finish their season with a record of 10-8-2. The No. 2-seed Vikings improve to 11-2-3 and will face No. 1-seed Carthage College in the tournament final on Saturday.

On a very windy evening, the hosts jumped out to a lead in the first 63 seconds of the match. Fredrik Greiff took a free kick from 50 yards and knocked it into the netting on one bounce to put the Vikings on the board. 

Cory Weaver
But it was Drew Golz who scored the equalizer almost nine minutes later. The senior forward headed in a ball to the left post off senior midfielder Cory Weaver's (PICTURED RIGHT) corner kick at 9:58 into the game.

The rest of the half played very evenly. Offense dominated the pitch as both sides saw plenty of scoring opportunities throughout the night. North Park funneled to the midfield and then effectively sent the ball out wide to the wings in space to get runs at the goal. Wheaton got the balls to their forwards, who did nice touch passes in close to set each other up.

Wheaton's best chance to go ahead came in the 30th minute when the Thunder put two point-blank shots on net. But North Park goalie Tim Ahlberg saved both and kept the score knotted at 1-1. North Park thought it had a goal scored in the 41st minute, but offsides negated the play.

The second half momentum slowly started swinging to North Park. After Weaver's blast hit the crossbar in the 55th minute, the Vikings possessed and strung together some scoring chances. The deciding goal came in the 81st minute when Kris Grahn dribbled through three defenders and scored with his left foot from in close.

Wheaton ended up with a 23-17 shot advantage. Corner kicks were even at eight apiece. Thunder goalie Ryan Seager made four saves in taking the loss. Ahlberg collected nine saves to take the win.
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