Wheaton, Ill. -- The Wheaton men's soccer team found itself in an atypical position of welcoming a non-conference opponent to Joe Bean Stadium for its annual Homecoming game, as the Thunder played host to Calvin University on Saturday night. The Knights, ranked 15th in the country in this week's United Soccer Coaches national poll and making the program's first visit to Wheaton since 2014, enjoyed a highly impressive performance on the road. Calvin won this evening's match by a score of 7-0 to improve to 8-1-1 on the season. The Thunder's record is now 3-7-1 after the team's final non-conference game of the regular season.
The Michigan visitors needed less than two minutes to open the scoring on Saturday, as an initially blocked attempt fell kindly to a trailing runner who buried his shot in the bottom left corner to stun the sizable home crowd. Calvin doubled its lead midway through the first half when a shot across the face of goal was redirected with a soft headed touch into the back of the net from close range.
Despite their statistical advantages through the first 45 minutes, the Knights were not assured of victory heading into halftime with a 2-0 lead. But the MIAA powerhouse took the game away from its host in the opening minutes of the second half thanks to a successful penalty kick and a beautiful solo finish from the left side of the box.
Two counterattacking breakaway goals by the same player in the space of one minute and another penalty kick four minutes from time completed the scoring on the night for Calvin. Wheaton struck the post in the second half and forced a pair of sharp saves from the Knights' goalkeeper, but the visitors largely controlled proceedings with a confident and quality showing.
Calvin out-shot Wheaton by a decisive 30-7 margin and put 14 efforts on target compared to the Thunder's three. The Knights took nine corner kicks while the hosts carved out four of their own and shaded the possession at 51-49%.
Sam Brown,
Cooper Falling, and
Brody Prochnow accounted for Wheaton's attempts on target tonight, while
Luke Vander Kolk was unlucky not to get the home side on the scoreboard with his finish off the post.
Luke McGuire tallied seven saves in the Thunder goal.
Gavin Gottlieb and
Oliver Van Eaton made their debuts for Wheaton off the bench this evening.
At halftime of Saturday's game, a ceremony was held to honor the 2006 Wheaton men's soccer team that won the CCIW Tournament title and advanced all the way to the NCAA Division III National Championship match in legendary head coach Joe Bean's final season at the helm. (
returning players from the 2006 team pictured here)
The Thunder will look to bounce back when the squad returns to conference play on Wednesday with a 6 PM fixture at Augustana College.
