Kalamazoo, Mich. -- The Wheaton men's soccer team took to the road this afternoon for its last fixture in a second stretch of three-straight road matches over the past three weeks. The Thunder headed east to the state of Michigan to face off against the Kalamazoo College Hornets in the final regular season non-conference test on Wheaton's schedule. The team's strong recent form continued on Wednesday evening with a 2-0 win, marking the fourth-straight victory for Wheaton, all of which have come by a two-goal margin. The Thunder's season record has now moved above .500 to stand at 5-4-1, and the squad will head into the bulk of its conference slate buoyed by its last few results.
Just as they did in last weekend's victory at Elmhurst University, the Thunder scored two goals inside the opening half-hour of tonight's game to establish an early cushion before seeing out the win with an assured defensive display. Wheaton needed less than three minutes to open the scoring on Wednesday, and the guests found the back of the net on their first meaningful attack of the match.
Pryse Anderson collected the ball on the left sideline and turned in towards the Kalamazoo penalty area to unleash a powerful strike on goal from a tight angle and force a quality save from the opposition shot-stopper. But this block rebounded into
Cooper Falling's path, and the freshman
(pictured below) stepped up confidently
to thump home a first-time volley from the top right area of the box into the lower corner to put the visitors ahead early.
Two minutes after Falling's clinical opener, the Hornets responded by drawing the first of four saves they would ask
Mason Escalante to make over the 90 minutes of action with a header on target. But Wheaton would score the all-important next goal 11 minutes later after Anderson and
Luke Vander Kolk each came close to doubling the visitors' lead. Just past the 15-minute mark of the opening period, the junior duo of
Timmy Jones and
Kyle Johnson combined neatly in the midfield to move Wheaton forward in attack. Jones played the ball up to Johnson, continued his progressive run, and received a sharp one-two layoff pass from the striker. The center midfielder then wasted no time in steering his shot attempt from five yards outside of the box into the bottom right corner to catch the hosts' goalkeeper off guard and double Wheaton's advantage on the scoreboard. This marked the first goal of Jones' career in Orange and Blue, and while the third-year player has had to be patient to get on the scoresheet, it finally happened on Wednesday in high-quality fashion courtesy of a precise, long-range effort. After a lively opening 15 minutes, this second strike of the contest proved to be the last shot on target of the first half as Wheaton shored things up defensively and maintained its 2-0 advantage heading into the halftime break.
Kalamazoo was given a lifeline in the contest when Wheaton was shown a red card 11 minutes into the second period, meaning that the Thunder would have to defend their lead a man down for the rest of the game. After this dismissal, the visitors unsurprisingly elected to sacrifice some of their offensive pressure and stay compact behind the ball to make things difficult for the hosts in their attempt to pull a goal back. Wheaton only registered two more shots before the end of the match, but the team did not put a foot wrong in managing the game and comfortably saw out another road win. The Thunder conceded just a pair of efforts on goal following the red card, and Escalante was not required to make any saves in the final ten minutes of the match en route to a second-successive shutout.
Wheaton put up one more shot attempt than Kalamazoo in Wednesday's meeting and also placed one more effort on target than the home side at 13-12 and 5-4 tallies, respectively. The Hornets carved out six corner kicks compared to just two for the Thunder, but the hosts were unable to make this set piece advantage count. Only 13 fouls were called in this evening's match, but five cards were handed out by the head official, with the visitors being shown two yellows and one red.
Four different players were responsible for Wheaton's shots on target tonight, with Falling and Jones's goals being paired with Anderson and Vander Kolk's saved attempts. Anderson and Johnson each picked up their second assist of the season, while Escalante and the Thunder defense earned their third clean sheet of the campaign.
After wrapping up non-conference competition on a high note, Wheaton's focus will return to CCIW action. Having begun the conference schedule with a 2-0 win at Elmhurst last Saturday, the Thunder's CCIW home opener arrives this Saturday night. The Wheaton men welcome the unbeaten and tenth-ranked North Park Vikings to Joe Bean Stadium for a 7 PM clash on Homecoming weekend.
