Rock Island, Ill. -- The Thunder men's soccer team earned its third-straight road win and a fifth victory on the spin on Saturday evening, as Wheaton rolled past Augustana College in western Illinois by a score of 4-0. The Orange and Blue netted twice either side of halftime to extend the program's noteworthy unbeaten streak against the Vikings, now stretching back 16 games to 2009. Tonight's win also continues Wheaton's perfect start to conference play and improves the squad's overall record to 8-2-3 this fall. The Thunder have outscored their opponents 13-2 during their five-match winning run and have kept a clean sheet in four of their last five fixtures. Wheaton sits alone atop the CCIW standings at the halfway point of its regular season conference slate, while Augustana drops to 1-2-1 in league competition following Saturday's contest.

It took less than five minutes for the reigning regular season champions to open the scoring against their overmatched hosts this evening, as Timmy Jones picked out leading scorer Luke Vander Kolk with a beautiful slide-rule pass through the heart of the Augustana defense. The junior striker timed his run perfectly and dispatched a clinical finish from the top left of the box past the out-rushing goalkeeper into the lower right corner of the net to collect his 11th goal of the campaign, joint-most in the conference to date. The Vikings showed offensive interest three minutes later, drawing a save from Wheaton goalkeeper Jack Krahel (pictured right). 
But this proved to be one of only two efforts on target for the home side in the first half, as the Thunder defense stifled Augie's attacking aims.

Vander Kolk came close to grabbing his second of the day in the 11th minute, and Wheaton maintained its offensive pressure with two more attempts on goal in the following exchanges. The Connecticut native then helped create the visitors' second goal in the 26th minute when he was played in behind on the right flank and drove to the byline before cutting a reverse pass back across the face of goal for a teammate to punch home. No Wheaton player arrived on the scene to oblige, but it ultimately did not matter, as an unfortunate Vikings defender attempted to clear the ball away and could only manage to boot it into his own net to extend Wheaton's lead. 

The home side began the second half by applying pressure on the Thunder back line and fired off four shot attempts in the first ten minutes of the period. But none of these efforts found the back of the net, and as they have done many times already this season, the visitors slowly turned the screws and retook control of the game midway through the second half. Their lead was pushed to three on 65 minutes when Mason Louth whipped an excellent cross from the left wing to the back post, where the arriving Cooper Falling was all too happy to tap it in for his second goal in as many games.

Not satisfied with the three-goal advantage it now possessed, Wheaton continued to push forward and registered another attempt on target and a pair of corner kicks in the next minute of play following Falling's strike. The senior midfielder Jack Jacquet then joined his aforementioned teammate on two goals in two games when he rattled the crossbar from the top of the box before following up his own shot to blast home from close range on the rebound. The Thunder had three more chances to increase their scoring haul even further, and the Vikings tested Krahel one more time just shy of the 80-minute mark. But the game had long been settled by this point, and Wheaton comfortably extended its current status as one of only two unbeaten teams in the conference with a commanding result away from home.

The Thunder enjoyed sizable statistical advantages in Saturday's contest, attempting 16 total shots to Augustana's eight and putting an impressive 12 efforts on target compared to just five for the Vikings. Wheaton out-possessed its Quad Cities host by a 56-44% margin and carved out 11 corner kicks to Augie's three.

Vander Kolk posted a joint match-high three shots on goal this evening and built upon his CCIW-leading points and game-winning goal tallies of 24 and five, respectively. Jones contributed two shots on target in addition to his assist, while fellow senior midfielder Louth earned his fourth assist of the season, second-most in the squad behind Falling. Falling scored from his only shot of the night, and Jacquet similarly tallied one effort on frame, along with Wednesday's game-winner Reuben Bos, Caleb Davis, Jack Kern, and Craig Rusin. Krahel made four saves in the Wheaton goal on Saturday en route to his conference-best fifth shutout of the year.

On the back of a highly successful three-match road stretch and looking to extend their perfect 4-0 mark in CCIW action, the Thunder will return to Joe Bean Stadium on Wednesday for a 7 PM match against the Carthage College Firebirds.