GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE: Chad Musgraves tallied a goal and an assist in Wheaton's 3-0 victory over Kalamazoo on Friday night.
Wheaton, Ill.- The Wheaton Thunder men's soccer team kicked off their season under the lights on Friday night with a convincing 3-0 victory over the Kalamazoo College Hornets in their first game of the Bob Baptista Invitational. The Thunder (1-0) used a controlling offensive attack to overwhelm Kalamazoo (0-1) early and then coasted to the victory in front of a large crowd at Joe Bean Stadium.
After a quiet few minutes to open the action, Kalamazoo was able to hold off the first real attack of the night just ten minutes in by staving off four consecutive corner kicks from the Thunder to keep the game scoreless. The score would not remain tied for much longer though, in the 15th minute
Matt Hussey ran down the sideline and produced a perfect cross into the box which found the head of
Chad Musgraves for the first goal of the night.
Just a minute-and-a-half later, Hornets goalie
Dane Macdonell made a tremendous save of
Adam Blackman's one-timer to keep it a one-goal game. Macdonell would finish the night with five saves, while allowing all three Thunder goals.
Wheaton continued to control the pace of play in the first half and finally was able to strike again at the 36:10 mark of the first half when
Marshall Hollingsworth broke loose down the left sideline and was able to fire a shot at Macdonell from the left side of the box. Macdonell was able to make the initial save but the ball bounced free and
Nathan Jasperse was there to finish it and give the Thunder a 2-0 lead.
Kalamazoo barely escaped giving up another goal with just under two minutes remaining in the half.
Kevin Skinker beat the offsides trap on the backline and lofted the ball over the head of the charging Macdonell only to watch the ball sail just high leaving the Thunder up 2-0 at halftime.
Jason Bhatta (PICTURED RIGHT) capped the scoring with a goal in the 72nd minute on an assist from Musgraves. Bhatta took the feed from Musgraves at the top of the box, spun around a Hornet defender and rifled a shot past Macdonell to give the Thunder a 3-0 lead.
Wheaton outshot the Hornets 23-10 on the night and 8-1 in shots on goal. After seven corner kick opportunities in the first half, Wheaton finished with a 14-2 edge from the corner.
Ryan Seager made one save in preserving the shutout for the Thunder.
Wheaton will return to action at 7:00 PM on Saturday night, September 1, when they host Principia College in the final game of the Bob Baptista Invitational. Also in tournament action on Friday, Principia was defeated by Carthage by a score of 2-0.
PHOTO GALLERY, COURTESY OF WWW.THUNDERPHOTOS.COM
