GAME STATS PICTURED ABOVE: Elliot Borge scored a goal and assisted on another in Wheaton's 2-0 win over Bethel on Friday night.

Wheaton, Ill. - The well-traveled Thunder men's soccer team returned to the familiar confines of Joe Bean Stadium at Friday night and found the results to be similar to that of its recent road swing. Playing its first home game after covering over 2,200 miles over a recent three-game road swing, the Thunder outshot the Bethel Royals 35-4 and cruised to a 2-0 victory for Wheaton's fifth straight victory. An announced crowd of 922 was wowed throughout the night by some impressive individual displays by the Thunder but were largely silenced by Wheaton's inability to finish its opportunities save for a three minute stretch that saw the Thunder net both goals.

Matt Paprocki turned in his second consecutive clean sheet without making a save as all four Bethel shots were off target. AJ Syler made 12 saves including a pair of point-blank efforts and allowed two goals for the Royals. Wheaton held the edge in corner kicks 12-3 on the night.

Wheaton nearly broke the game open off the opening kick by stringing together a series of passes that led to a strong left-footed effort by Stepehen Golz that was stopped by a full-extension fingertip save by Syler just 10 seconds into the match. Bethel then came inches away from taking the early lead whn Matthew Pisarski's shot went just wide right 59 seconds into the match.

From there the match quickly escalted into a physical affair that saw a yellow card issued to each team on separate fouls in the 16th minute and a second yellow card issued to Bethel's Danny Jaderholm at the 20:17 mark forcing Bethel to play with just 10 men for the final 70 minutes of match. The Royals turned in a spirited defensive effort for the remainder of the first half and managed to keep the score scoreless until the halftime break.

An early onslaught at the start of the second half finally led to the go-ahead goal eight minutes into the second half. Pushing forward out of the midfield, Elliot Borge took a pass from Stephen Golz and rifled a rising left-foot shot under the crossbar to make the score 1-0. Three minutes later the speed of Marshall Hollingsworth (PICTURED RIGHT) tracked down a loose ball from Borge and blew past the Royals defense to beat Syler to the far post and put Wheaton ahead 2-0 at the 56:23 mark.

Wheaton had several opportunites stymied by Syler down the stretch including a save of Mason Duling's penalty kick attempt in the 89th minute to keep the tally 2-0.

Wheaton will start another three-game road trip on Tuesday when the Thunder take on the University of Chicago Maroons at 4 PM.