GAME STATS Wheaton, Ill.- 220 minutes of soccer was not enough to separate the Wheaton Thunder and North Park Vikings men's soccer teams this season.  Playing to a 3-3 draw earlier in the season, the Thunder and Vikings conjured another classic in Saturday night's CCIW Tournament Final.  After playing to a 1-1 tie, Ryan Seager stepped up and made two saves while Wheaton buried all four of its kicks and Wheaton won the shootout 4-1 to claim the CCIW's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Tournament and the program's first CCIW Tournament Championship since 2009. Wheaton secured the CCIW's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the CCIW Tournament. The NCAA will announce tournament pairings on Monday at 12:00 PM CST at www.ncaa.com.

Wheaton (15-3-3) finished the match with a 30-10 advantage in shots and 8-6 in shots on goal.  The Thunder outcornered North Park 8-1.  Seager (PICTURED LEFT) made four saves while allowing one goal in 110 minutes in net for the Thunder.  Viking keeper Tim Ahlberg made six saves and allowed one goal while playing the full 110 minutes.

Playing in front of a packed house at Joe Bean Stadium, the Thunder and Vikings (12-2-5) fed off the energy of the crowd as the teams played each other to a quick-paced draw through the first half hour of play.

It took a moment of brilliance from North Park's Robin Hals to break the draw.  Playing a loose ball late in the 40th minute, Hals swung into a one-time volley from 30 yards away that went off the finger tips of Seager and into the net giving the Vikings the 1-0 lead.  They would hold that lead until halftime.

Momentum started to swing the way of the Thunder in the second half as Wheaton controlled the possession and had the majority of the opportunities but could not breakthrough with the equalizer.

The build-up finally crescendoed for the Thunder at the 76:08 mark on a loose ball sent into the box.  Mitchell Paur gave chase for the Thunder and before he could elevate to head the loose ball was taken down by the on-rushing Ahlberg drawing a penalty.  Josh Clark (PICTURED RIGHT) calmly slotted the ball in the lower corner to tie the game at 1-1.

Both teams had opportunities in the closing minutes of regulation including a Thunder corner in the last half minute, but neither team could capitalize and the game headed to extra time.

In the first overtime, Wheaton continued to control the flow of play and looked like they may have had the winner halfway through the period when Elliot Borge launched a shot that hit the crossbar and bounced straight down before it was cleared away from goal without crossing the line.  Without a goal in the first period the play moved into the second extra period.

Wheaton outshot North Park 4-1 in the second overtime, but both keepers answered the call and pushed the game to a 1-1 draw and a penalty shootout.

In the penalty shootout, Josh Clark led off the Thunder and converted his kick to give the Thunder a 1-0 advantage.  In the bottom half, Markus Folstad tried to go lower 90, but Seager was able to kick save the ball clear for the save.  Next for the Thunder, Noah Anthony powered his shot in past Ahlberg.  Again it was Seager to answer the call for the Thunder in the bottom half as he parried away the shot from Iain Chester giving Wheaton a 2-0 advantage after two frames.  Both Elliot Borge and Jonas Pettersson converted in the third frame and Kevin Skinker came through with the fourth conversion for the Thunder, clinching the 4-1 shootout and victory and punching Wheaton's ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

Note worthy:  The last CCIW Tournament Championship to go to a shootout was 2009, when Ryan Seager made two saves and Wheaton won the shootout 3-1...Saturday night was the third CCIW Tournament Championship to go to a shootout, Wheaton has won all three...Wheaton captured their seventh CCIW Tournament Championship...the field for the 2012 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament will be announced on Monday at 12 PM CST. The selection show will air on www.ncaa.com.