Claremont, Calif. -- The Wheaton men's soccer team is traveling 2,000 miles across the country this week to southern California for a pair of non-conference matches, and the Thunder's unique weekend slate began with a test at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Thursday night. The first-ever meeting between the two sides resulted in a 2-0 win for the hosts, who are unbeaten through their first five fixtures of the season and already boast multiple impressive wins on their resumé. The Stags scored a goal in either half of tonight's matchup to emerge with the non-conference victory.

CMS posted twice as many shots as their Illinois visitors did in Thursday's contest, including a decisive 9-3 advantage in the first half, and put six efforts on target while limiting Wheaton to only two shots on goal. The Stags also took three more corner kicks than the Thunder did. The hosts were called for twice as many fouls as Wheaton this evening, but the away side was shown the game's only yellow card booking.

Pryse Anderson and Luke Vander Kolk accounted for Wheaton's two attempts on frame on Thursday, both of which came in the first half. Goalkeeper Jack Krahel came into the match early on in his first appearance of the season and made four saves in his 87 minutes of action.

Already owning a win over previously top-ranked St. Olaf this year and playing in front of a sizable home crowd, CMS relished the role of favorites in tonight's matchup and began the game on the front foot. The SCIAC side registered six shots and three corner kicks inside the opening 30 minutes while holding the Thunder to one of each within that timeframe. Vander Kolk forced a save from the Stags' shot-stopper on 40 minutes, but less than two minutes later, the deadlock was broken as the hosts took the lead and earned a narrow halftime advantage.

Wheaton came out of the locker room with renewed determination and fired off the first three shots of the second half, but the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps back line limited the number of good looks at goal for the visitors throughout the duration of the match. Midway through the second period, CMS doubled its lead and moved one step closer to notching its second home win of the young campaign. The Thunder pushed forward in the final minutes and earned two corner kick opportunities, as well as a header that flashed just wide in the closing seconds. But the suburban Los Angeles outfit excelled at both ends of the pitch tonight and claimed the final result in their favor.

Wheaton will aim to get back in the win column when it plays the second of its two fixtures on this week's trip on Saturday night. The Thunder will travel a few miles south to Orange, California to take on Chapman University, and kick-off is set for 7 PM local/9 PM Central time.