PICTURED ABOVE: Marshall Hollingsworth scored both Wheaton goals on Saturday night.
Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder men's soccer team wrapped up its four-game home stand on Saturday night with a 2-0 victory over North Central. With the victory, Wheaton completed its home stand undefeated and recorded a shutout in three of the four victories. Wheaton improves to 4-1 in conference play and 10-3-2 overall. North Central falls one game behind the Thunder at 3-2 in the CCIW and 4-12 overall.
Wheaton used a decisive 12-3 edge in second half shots to outshoot the Cardinals 18-6 on the night. Wheaton attemped five corner kicks with four coming in the first half. North Central attempted all three of their corner kicks in the secondhalf.
Matt Paprocki made one save in a shutout effort for Wheaton. Justin De Boer made four saves and allowed two goals for North Central.
The first half proved to be a defensive struggle with neither team threatening to score. North Central's De Boer made three routine stops for North Central while Paprocki made one save for Wheaton in what would end as a scoreless first half.
Wheaton came out of the locker room controlling the possession and building momentum in the attack. That momentum came to a head in the 56th minute when
Stephen Golz unleashed a shot from the top of the 18-yard box that was blocked back several yards.
Ben Bakke retreated to collect the ball and with no pressure from the defense played across to
Marshall Hollingsworth, who
unleashed a driving right-footed shot to the near post that bounded past De Boer to give Wheaton a 1-0 lead.
Wheaton continued controlling the possession as the game wore on and
Hollingsworth converted again at the 68:02 mark after he was pushed free on a give-and-go with
Noah Gulley (PICTURED LEFT) assist. The 2-0 advantage would hold as Hollingsworth's late attempt for the hat trick were blocked.
Wheaton will return to action on Wednesday night when the Thunder travel to Rock Island, Illinois, to take on Augustana College.
Note Worthy: With his two goals tonight,
Marshall Hollingsworth moved into 14th place in program history with 38 career goals.
