KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men suffered their second loss of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin season on Wednesday night in their home finale at Art Keller Field, falling to the Wheaton College Thunder in double overtime, 1-0.
The loss drops the Red Men to 9-8-1 on the year and to 4-2-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while Wheaton improves to 10-5-1 and 5-2-0 in the league. Despite the loss, Carthage has secured its spot in the 2018 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament thanks to a win by North Central College over Augustana College.
The Red Men controlled much of the pace of play in the opening 45 minutes of the match, as Carthage continuously slowed the Wheaton attack and forced them into a number of turnovers. Despite a number of stolen passes by the Red Men in the offensive third of the field, the Red Men were unable to score as their best opportunities by
Xavian Cruz and
Adrian Herrera were past a beaten Thunder goalkeeper, only to be denied by the crossbar to keep scoreless through the half.
Those shots off the cross bar proved to be crucial as a scoreless second half, which saw a more evenly played second 45 minutes remain scoreless.
Niko Mavrogiannis made a huge save in the second half to keep it 0-0 in a 1-on-1 situation in the 62nd minute. Mavrogiannis made finished with seven saves in the loss.
After ten minutes of golden goal soccer, the Thunder were finally able to break through with a through ball to split the Carthage defensive line and the Thunder were able to pass the ball across the box to beat Mavrogiannis for the 1-0 win in the 103rd minute.
Carthage finished with a 18-10 edge in shots, however the Thunder put eight of theirs on goal to just four for the Red Men.
The Red Men will conclude their regular season on Saturday as Carthage heads to Augustana College to take on the Vikings at 4:30 p.m. After that, the Red Men will open the CCIW Tournament on Wednesday, October 31st. Opponent, location and time are still to be determined.