Naperville, Ill. -- The Wheaton men's soccer team advanced to the CCIW Championship game for the first time since 2021 thanks to a 4-2 penalty shootout victory over regular season champion North Central College in Naperville tonight. The fourth-seeded Thunder and top-seeded Cardinals played to a 1-1 draw after extra time before the visitors triumphed from 12 yards to earn the program's first shootout success since the 2013 conference tournament. Wheaton will travel to the #2 seed, North Park University, for Saturday's CCIW Championship, which will be played at 5 PM in Chicago.
The high-scoring Cardinals came into Wednesday's contest having netted 18 goals in their last five fixtures, including a 4-2 win in Wheaton in the sides' regular season meeting two weeks ago. But the Thunder put in an impressive defensive performance this evening, highlighted by freshman goalkeeper
Oli Piasecki's seven saves in just his second career start.
North Central fired off 20 shot attempts and put eight efforts on target, while Wheaton took seven shots and directed four on frame across the 110 minutes of play. The hosts also logged clear advantages in corner kicks and possession at 8-2 and 60-40% counts, respectively. But the underdogs stung the tournament's top seed on the counter, survived a late equalizer, and navigated the extra frames and shootout perfectly to spring the upset. 33 total fouls were called and six yellow cards were handed out in tonight's feisty clash.
Cooper Falling (
pictured right) netted his seventh goal of the season with 15 minutes remaining in regulation to give Wheaton the lead, and
Sam Brown picked up his second collegiate assist on the go-ahead strike. Falling's fellow All-CCIW Second Team member,
Craig Rusin, led all players with two shots on goal, while
Luke Vander Kolk registered one try on frame.
The first half of Wednesday's semifinal was a sleepy, cagey affair that featured only one attempt on frame from either side, a long-distance hit by Rusin in the 18th minute that stung the gloves of NCC's goalkeeper. The Cardinals' striker took a pair of shots in quick succession early on, and the hosts carved out two corner kick opportunities either side of the 20-minute mark. But apart from these glimpses at goal, neither team came close to opening the scoring before the intermission. North Central thought it had earned the lead in the 38th minute, but a close-range finish was ruled out for offside.
The #1 seed needed only one minute at the start of the second period to tally its first shot on target, with last season's CCIW Offensive Player of the Year drawing a save from Piasecki before a follow-up effort was also denied by the rookie shot-stopper. Piasecki was called on again in the 53rd minute and made a diving save down to his right before coming up with the defensive play of the game on 67 minutes. North Central sprang one of its forwards clear in on goal with a 1v1 opportunity coming into the right side of the box, but the first-year goalie rushed off his line to force an early shot attempt and blocked the ball with his trailing leg to repel one of the Cardinals' best looks of the night and keep the score tied at 0-0. (
pictured below)
Another shot attempt and a corner kick followed as the hosts sought reward for their offensive pressure. Wheaton struck first, however, as a rare foray up the field produced the go-ahead goal in the 76th minute. Brown received the ball on the left flank, and after regaining his footing and taking it around the nearest defender, served up a tasty cross to the back post. Falling arrived unmarked in the box with a well-timed run and directed a sharp header back across the frame from eight yards away. NCC's goalie got a hand to the shot but could not prevent it from sneaking inside the left post, and Falling's finish set off major celebrations on the Wheaton bench and among the traveling Thunder supporters in the stands.
Piasecki needed to make another stop on 83 minutes, but the visitors managed their lead well and looked to be headed to a shutout victory in regulation despite North Central's efforts. This proved not to be the case, however, as the home side finally broke through with less than 20 seconds remaining in the match on a dramatic equalizer from a corner kick that broke Thunder hearts and sent the game into overtime.
Wheaton responded to this setback in admirable fashion, not allowing a single attempt on target in the first extra time frame. Vander Kolk tested the NCC shot-stopper just 40 seconds into the period, before Rusin logged his second effort on goal five minutes later. North Central answered back with a pair of shots on goal in the second 10-minute overtime block and struck the crossbar with six minutes remaining. But neither team found the golden goal that would have settled the contest, so the game had to be decided through spot kicks.
This was the first penalty shootout for Wheaton since a 7-6 defeat to Illinois Wesleyan in the semifinals of the 2023 CCIW Tournament. With the memory of that painful result in the minds of the Thunder seniors, the Orange and Blue finally broke through at the semifinal stage with a 4-2 victory on Wednesday after successfully converting all four of their attempts. Brown continued his strong recent form by starting the shootout with a convincing score, North Central responded with a made penalty, and Rusin buried his try in the side netting to make it 2-1 in Wheaton's favor. NCC's next taker failed to hit the target, handing the Thunder the first clear advantage. Falling held his nerve from 12 yards to capitalize on this error before the Cardinals scored their subsequent attempt to set the line at 3-2 after three rounds.
Ashur Eshw, the only player to score a penalty kick for Wheaton in 2026 prior to tonight, calmly steered his try into the back of the net to put the Thunder on the brink. Needing to score to keep his team in the tournament, North Central's fourth taker fired his attempt off of the right post to give the visitors a 4-2 shootout win that ended the Cardinals' season and sent the Thunder to the title game.
Wheaton will make its league-leading 15th CCIW Championship appearance on Saturday and is seeking the program's first conference tournament trophy since 2014. The Thunder are set to take on the other regular season co-champion, North Park University, who advanced to the title match thanks to a last-minute penalty kick in a 1-0 win over sixth-seeded Augustana College. The Vikings are making their third-consecutive CCIW Championship appearance after falling in both the 2024 and 2025 tournament finals. NPU comes into Saturday's game with a 13-1-4 record and is currently ranked #21 in the United Soccer Coaches Division III poll. Saturday's match will mark the second meeting of the two sides at the Holmgren Athletic Complex this fall following North Park's 3-2 regular season victory over Wheaton on September 26. Kick-off is set for 5 PM in Chicago this weekend, and the winning team will earn the CCIW's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship.
