PICTURED ABOVE: Max Carey scored a goal and had an assist in Wheaton's 3-1 win at North Park on Thursday night.

Chicago, Ill. - The Thunder men's soccer team avenged a loss to North Park earlier this season with a 3-1 victory over the Vikings on Thursday night in a CCIW Tournament Semifinal match. With the victory, Wheaton advances to Saturday night's CCIW Tournament Championship game at Carthage College beginning at 7 PM. Wheaton will be appearing in its fifth-straight CCIW Tournament Championship game. Wheaton has now won five straight contests to improve to 8-7-3 while North Park falls to 10-7-1.

In a wide open contest, Wheaton narrowly owned an 18-17 edge in shots with North Park putting seven shots on goal to Wheaton's six. Andrew Beard made six saves and allowed one goal in 90 minutes of work for the Thunder. His counterpart, Wesley Woodley allowed three goals and made three saves for the Vikings.

Both goalies were called into action in the opening minutes of play with Beard turning away the Vikings in the third minute and Woodley answering the call in the 11th minute. However, Wheaton struck quickly thereafter when David Clark beat Woodley in the lower left corner on an assist from Max Carey to give Wheaton a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute.

Wheaton's defense held strong throughout the first half against a North Park attack that attempted eight corner kicks and forced four saves from Beard. Late in the first half, Drew Shay beat Woodley with a shot that hit the post and bounced where Jacob Kapitaniuk (PICTURED RIGHT) knocked home the rebound to give Wheaton a 2-0 advantage in the 42nd minute.

After North Park dominated the scoring chances in the first half, Wheaton pushed the action in the second half, outshooting the Vikings 10-5. Ben Bakke narrowly missed adding to the lead just two minutes into the second half when his shot rattled the crossbar but bounced away. North Park cut Wheaton's lead in half in the 64th minute when Matias Warp scored off a free kick to make it 2-1.

Pushing hard for the equalizer, Wheaton was able to take advantage on the counter attack in the 85th minute and Carey headed home an assist from Will Woodfin to put the game away and push the Thunder through to Saturday's Championship game.