Box Score The Carthage College men's soccer team (8-3-0, 0-1-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked third in the Oct. 3 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Central Region poll, opened its CCIW-schedule on Wednesday night, Oct. 3 with a 3-2 loss to Wheaton College (Ill., 7-3-2, 1-0-1) at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis.  The Thunder were ranked sixth in the regional poll.
 
Wheaton took a 1-0 first-half lead on a goal 34:54 by Adam Blackman, his sixth of the year and assisted by Noah Anthony.  The Red Men's Greg Pignataro was whistled for a red card 10 minutes before the Thunder goal, and Carthage was forced to play a man short the rest of the game.  “Losing Greg Pignataro to a straight red card, along with Jordan Innis so early in the game, really sent us reeling in the first half,” admitted Carthage coach Steve Domin.  “That's something we're not used to.  Having to make that many key substitutions right off the bat in an incredibly-important match was not something we expected to do.”
 
Carthage tied the game in the second period on a goal by Erhan Caglayan (So., Schaumburg, Ill.) at 58:00, his fifth of the year, and assisted by Billy Hamilton.  The Thunder took a 2-1 lead at 69:15 on a goal by Marshall Hollingsworth.  Three minutes later at 72:33, the Red Men tied the contest, 2-2, on a goal by Michael Dombrowski (So., Johnsburg, Ill.), his fifth of the year and assisted by Jake Bukiri.  Wheaton took the lead for good, 3-2, at 81:49 when Jonathan Clark scored on Noah Anthony's second assist of the game.  The Thunder out-shot the Red Men by a 25-11 margin. 
 
“There are no moral victories in this league,” said Domin.  “With a new mix of players, I know the guys feel like they are right on the edge of great things.  We were fighting an uphill battle the whole game, and we had to find ways to overcome some of that.  Give some credit to Wheaton, they have some very skilled players.  I was incredible proud of the way the guys battled back and took the energy of the game back in the second half, which ended up being very entertaining.  We had some text book giveaways at key moments that lead to their goals. The numbers won't support it, but we played our worst game, technically, this season.  Our energy was still almost enough to pull it out  It'll  will be a battle to make it through the next few weeks.” 

Carthage entertains conference-opponent Millikin University (3-8-0, 0-2-0 CCIW) on Saturday, Oct. 6 in a 7:30 p.m. contest, also at Art Keller Field.