Tacoma, Wash. -- After kicking off the 2025 season at home last weekend, the Wheaton men's soccer team ventured out on the road for the first time this fall as it flew across the country for two non-conference tests on Friday and Saturday. The Thunder began their weekend slate in Washington state with a game at Pacific Lutheran University on Friday afternoon, and despite falling a goal behind, the visitors fought back for a gritty 2-1 win. Today's result takes Wheaton's early season record to 2-0-1, and the team will be back on the same field tomorrow afternoon for the second portion of their long-distance trip.
The hosting Lutes will be disappointed to walk away from Friday's fixture empty-handed after tallying more shots, more efforts on goal, and more corners than their Illinois guests. The Northwest Conference outfit posted 18 total attempts to Wheaton's ten, six shots on target to the Thunder's four, and earned one more corner kick opportunity at a 5-4 split. The fouls were evenly called in today's contest, but the Lutes' aggressive style saw three of their players' names taken in the referee's book compared to just one yellow card for Wheaton.
Jack Krahel had a busy outing in goal for the Thunder on Friday, being called upon to make five saves, four of which came after Wheaton took the lead in the second half. Four different Thunder players logged a shot on goal, with
Isaac Lucas providing the equalizer and
Ashur Eshw scoring the eventual game-winner from the penalty spot.
The opening minutes of today's match contained plenty of action, with reigning CCIW Offensive Student-Athlete of the Week
Luke Vander Kolk testing the opposition keeper just 30 seconds into the game and
Timmy Jones steering an effort on frame ten minutes later. Pacific Lutheran came flying out of the gate with four shot attempts and three corner kicks in the first 17 minutes before finally breaking through with a fine finish into the upper left corner of the net. Wheaton attempted to respond quickly to the setback with a shot and two set pieces of its own in the following exchanges, but a save from Krahel with three minutes remaining in the period was as close as either side came to scoring again before halftime.
The Thunder caught their western hosts cold at the start of the next 45, however, as the freshman Lucas (
pictured below) netted his first collegiate goal less than two minutes into the second half with a clinical strike
into the bottom right corner to level the score at 1-1. Buoyed by this fast start, Wheaton drove forward again a minute later and won a penalty kick from a PLU foul in the box. The junior transfer Eshw stepped forward to take the responsibility and calmly converted the free shot to continue his fine start to life in Orange and Blue and put the Thunder ahead in next to no time. Wheaton then reverted to a more defensive approach for the remainder of the contest and sacrificed clear attacking opportunities in favor of defensive solidity. Pacific Lutheran accepted the challenge of needing to mount a comeback of its own and stepped up its offensive pressure on the away side. The Lutes drew four more stops from Krahel, including two in the final five minutes, but their efforts to claim a point on home turf fell short and Wheaton secured a morale-building victory in its first road test of the new campaign.
The Thunder will remain in Tacoma to face Pacific Lutheran's local rivals, University of Puget Sound, on Saturday. The match is scheduled to kick off at 1:30 PM local time, 3:30 Central.
