PICTURED ABOVE: Andrew Beard made seven saves in recording his first shutout out of the season in Wheaton's 1-0 win over Lake Forest on Tuesday night.
Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton men's soccer team held off a hard-charging squad from Lake Forest in the final minutes to come away with a 1-0 victory over the Foresters on Tuesday night at Joe Bean Stadium. The match was a rematch of last season's NCAA Tournament First Round matchup that saw the Thunder emerge with a 3-2 victory on a last minute header. The victory snaps Wheaton's seven-match winless streak and moves the Thunder to unbeaten in their last three matches. Lake Forest falls to 5-5 with the loss.
Wheaton's
Andrew Beard played the hero for the Thunder making seven saves including impressive efforts in the final minutes to preserve his first clean sheet of the season. Tero Elias allowed one goal and made three saves for the Foresters. A wideopen contest throughout the night, Lake Forest outshot the Thunder 19-12 including a 14-4 effort in the second half that put constant pressure on the Thunder defense.
Missed opportunities was the storyline of the opening action for Wheaton. The Thunder survived a strong shot by John Cappuccitti that sailed just wide of the left post in the 12th minute and looked to take the lead in the 22nd minute but Tyler Robbin's header attempt at an empty net rattled the crossbar and pounded away from the goal. Four minutes later, Ayo Agunbiade was taken down in the penalty box leading to a penalty kick but
Reed Bartley sailed the penalty attempt high leaving things scoreless.
Neither team could get a shot toward the net for the following 15 minutes until Wheaton earned a corner kick in the 41st minute.
Will Woodfin sailed the corner kick to the far post where
David Clark's header floated back across the face of goal and landed in a crowd at the left post. With a scrum around the goalline,
Miseker Wingate (PICTURED RIGHT) was able to push the ball into the net for his first career goal to give Wheaton a 1-0 lead at the 40:41 mark.
Early and often in the second half, the Foresters put pressure on a makeshift backline for the Thunder that saw
Noah Gulley excel in his first appearance as a defender and
Drew Shay move from forward to a corner back position. As the half wore on, the Forester chances became more numerous with Beard making an outstanding save in traffic in the 70th minute as pressure mounted.
Three minutes later, Beard deflected a Gaston Aubert attempt at point blank range but the senior keeper saved his best effort for the 83rd minute. With desperation growing from the Forester attack, John Cappuccitti unleashed a bending right-footed effort from the top of the 18-yard box that appeared destined for the upper right corner of the goal until Beard reached full extension with a diving effort to push the ball wide for one of Lake Forest's nine corner kick attempts. Faced with a mad scramble in the final minute, the Thunder defense blocked a pair of shots and successfully stopped a Lake Forest corner kick in the final ten seconds to survive with the 1-0 victory.
Wheaton will return to action on Saturday night when the Thunder travel to Chicago to take on the North Park Vikings in the CCIW opener for both teams. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.
