PICTURED ABOVE: Adam Blackman scored the third goal in Wheaton's 3-0 win over UW-Whitewater on Saturday at Joe Bean Stadium.

Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder men's soccer team advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sectional Semifinals on Saturday night with a 3-0 victory over UW-Whitewater at Joe Bean Stadium. Stephen Golz netted two of Wheaton's three goals as the Thunder turned in a dominating effort to move into the Round of 16. With the win, Wheaton improves to 19-3 on the season. UW-Whitewater's season ends with a record of 14-5-4. The Warhawks advanced to tonight's game via a 3-1 victory over Carroll on Thursday night.

Wheaton owned a 21-7  edge in shots including a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal. The Thunder attempted seven corner kicks while the Warhawks had four corner kick opportunities. Matt Paprocki made four saves in net for the Thunder while Josh Rohde allowed three goals and made seven goals for the Warhawks.

The opening seconds of the match nearly provided the opening goal of the match as Brendan Finnerty walked into a shot just 20 seconds into the match that sailed just over the crossbar and established the tone for the match. Finnerty threatened again in the 10th minute with a heavy left-foot attempt that flew inches wide of the left post. Finally in the 33rd minute, Stephen Golz put the Thunder on the scoreboard with a flying header off a Noah Anthony corner kick that tucked inside the post to provide his 16th goal of the season.

After holding the 1-0 lead at the halftime break, Golz (PICTURED RIGHT) gave Wheaton some cushion just 73 seconds into the second half when he took an Elliot Borge pass from outside the box and beat Rohde to the far post making the score 2-0. Rohde made several point blank saves in the middle of the second half to keep the score at 2-0. Wheaton also had a goal disallowed due to an offsides call. With the UW-Whitewater pushing forward in the late minutes, Marshall Hollingsworth sent a ball over the Warhawk defense to a running Adam Blackman who dribbled around Rohde and rolled the ball into the open net.

Wheaton will face the winner of tomorrow afternoon's Wartburg-UChicago match in the NCAA Sectional Semifinals with times and locations to be announced.