Wheaton, Ill. - Early mistakes proved costly on Wednesday night for the Wheaton men's soccer team. The visiting Carthage Red Men stole momentum in the opening moments and never relinquished it in a 2-1 victory over the Thunder. Wheaton is now 0-2 in CCIW play and 4-7 overall. The Red Men improve to 6-5-1 overall and 1-1 conference play.
Though relatively even in shots, Carthage owned the better scoring chances despite the shots favoring Wheaton 15-13. Hasten Biddlecome made eight saves and allowed two goals. Carthage's Brayan Arce Justiniano made five saves and allowed one goal for the Red Men.

Early mistakes by the Thunder set the Red Men up with prime scoring opportunities but Hasten Biddlecome was up to the task early on, making five saves, including several highlight stops, in the opening 15 minutes. However, it would be a lapse by Biddlecome that led to the first goal of the match as Ivan Esquivel stole the ball from the Thunder keeper for an easy tap-in goal in the 13th minute. Wheaton was able to stem the Red Men momentum but neither team was able to piece together a scoring opportunity until the 38th minute, when Carthage pushed its lead to 2-0 on a thunderous volley by Kevin Mahoney from the top of the box.

Andrew Wade nearly cut the vistors' lead in half minutes later but his strong right foot from the top of the box sailed just over the crossbar, leaving the score at 2-0 heading into the halftime break. Despite being outshot 10-5 in the first half, Wheaton was able to generate more scoring chances in the second half, holding a 10-3 shot advantage. Wheaton was able to find the net late in the contest when Elliot Paul took advantage of a bobbled corner kick by Arce Justiniano for his second goal of the season to cut the final deficit to 2-1.

Wheaton will be back in action on Saturday night with a 7:30 pm kickoff at Carroll University.