PICTURED ABOVE: Ben Bakke's breakaway goal gave Wheaton a two-goal edge late in the second half of Wheaton's 3-2 win over UT-Dallas on Thursday night.

Wheaton, Ill. - An opportunistic Thunder men's soccer team opened its 2016 season on Thursday night with a 3-2 victory over the University of Texas at Dallas Comets. Wheaton scored early and late before holding on down the stretch in improving to 1-0 on the season and dropping the Comets to 0-1. Wheaton will travel to Rose-Hulman on Saturday morning for an 11 AM (EST) match against the Fightin' Engineers.

Riding an aggressive start, Wheaton pressured the Comets early and broke through with a goal in the sixth minute when Max Carey beat the Comets defense with an explosive run down the left side and found David Clark all alone in front of the net for a tap-in goal. Despite the fast start, UT-Dallas quickly answered back. Just three minutes later, Erik Reyes' shot pounded the crossbar but stayed out of the goal to keep Wheaton ahead 1-0. Several minutes after that, Danny Meyer finally tied the score with a swinging left foot at the 16:05 mark.

The game settled into an open battle for possession for the rest of the first half before freshman Miseker Wingate produced a dynamic shot from inside the box that came free for an easy rebound goal for Drew Shay (PICTURED RIGHT) to give Wheaton a 2-1 edge that it would carry into halftime. Danny Brandt nearly padded the lead in the 55th minute with a floating right-footed strike that was punched over the crossbar by Comet's keeper Joseph Weber for one of his three saves.

The rest of the second half turned into a defensive struggle with neither team able to find scoring opportunities until the Comets earned a corner kick in the 80th minute. UT-Dallas played the corner short to the top of the 18-yard box where David Clark streaked forward to steal the ball and unleash a quick counterattack the other direction. Clark carried to midfield before slotting the ball to Ben Bakke whose left foot pushed the ball past Weber to give Wheaton a 3-1 advantage with just under nine minutes to play. Carey nearly made it a three-goal lead four minutes later but was turned away by Weber on a point-blank shot.

UT-Dallas was able to manufacture a rebound goal withe just over two minutes to play that cut the lead to 3-2 but would not get another opportunity as the Thunder closed out their season-opening win. Wheaton outshot the Comets 10-9 with a 6-4 edge in shots on goal. Andrew Beard made two saves and allowed two goals in net for the Thunder.

Wheaton will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana, on Saturday morning to face Rose-Hulman in its next game with kickoff scheduled for noon (EDT).