Wheaton, Ill. - A back and forth match came to a wild finish, ultimately ending in a draw on Wednesday night. With both teams needing a win to stay alive in the CCIW Tournament race, the Thunder men's soccer team played to a 2-2 draw against Carthage at Joe Bean Stadium. With the draw, Wheaton moves to 3-2-2 in the CCIW and 10-4-3 overall. Carthage remains just behind Wheaton in the standings at 3-3-1 overall and 8-9-2 overall. Wheaton will host #15-ranked North Park on Saturday night for Senior Night with kickoff scheduled for 7 pm at Joe Bean Stadium in the regular season finale.
With the field wide open for most of the night, both teams fired off 29 shots with the Red Men putting 18 on goal and Wheaton putting eight on net.
Hasten Biddlecome made 16 saves including several big ones down the stretch. Nike Mavrogiannis made six saves for the Red Men.
Wheaton came bursting out of the gates, putting pressure on Carthage immediately with a shot just nine seconds into the match. The early pressure culminated in the first goal of the match when Mavrogiannis shoved
Alessandro D'Argento on a loose ball, drawing a Thunder penalty, which D'Argento converted for his fifth goal of the season. Carthage answered quickly when Daniel Eloyza forced a turnover in Wheaton's defensive third and quickly turned it into a goal with a quick strike from the top of the 18-yard box, leveling the score just over two minutes after the opening score.
A corner kick in the 33rd minute set up Wheaton's second goal when the initial corner was cleared away but
Joey Sopikiotis quickly touched the ball out to
Silas Galvao who sent a ball into the box which found the head of
Drew Beamer, who headed the ball inside the far post to give the Thunder a 2-1 lead, which the hosts took to halftime.
After a quiet open to the second half,
Michael Groza nearly added to Wheaton's lead in the 71st minute when his shot sailed just wide of the net. Just under two minutes later, Eloyza knotted the score at 2 when his free kick from 30 yards out tucked under the crossbar for his second goal of the night. Biddlecome came up big for the Thunder, recording four saves in the final 10 minutes to help push the match to extra time.
After another big save by Biddlecome in the 95th minute,
Joey Sopikiotis came inches away from a game-winner in the 98th minute when his strike from 25 yards beat Mavrogiannis but pounded off the right post and away from the goal.
Will Woodfin followed nearly a minute later with a shot that sailed just high over the crossbar.
The second overtime period started quietly but went off script early in the 108th minute when a scrum in front of the Thunder net led to a Carthage red card, leaving the Thunder with a man-advantage for the final 2:51 of the match. The red card set off a chaotic end-to-end finish that started with a marvelous save by Marvogiannis on
Miseker Wingate at the 108:04 mark that led to a Thunder corner kick. With a quick clearance off the corner, Carthage raced to the other end where
Hasten Biddlecome denied Matteo Costa. Biddlecome made his final save with just 29 seconds remaining and quickly rolled the ball out to turn loose a three-on-one Thunder breakaway. With the clock winding down, Groza's shot was blocked with 15 seconds left and cleared away, finishing the match in a draw.
