Men's soccer advances to Round of 16 with 2-0 victory over Centre
Wheaton, Ill.- Wheaton shrugged off several early missed opportunities and once again turned in a strong second half to defeate the Centre College Colonels 2-0 in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. Wheaton turned in their second shutout in as many games and advanced to the Round of 16 for the first time since 2006.
Wheaton outshot the Colonels 21-9 and outcornered Centre 9-2. #Ryan Seager# made four saves in turning in his second consecutive clean sheet. Centre's Zach Sosnovich made four saves and allowed two goals.
The first half was defined by missed opportunites for both sides. In the ninth minute #Chad Musgraves# scored what looked to be an early goal only to have it negated by an offsides call.
Two minutes later, the Colonels couldn't capitalize on a loose ball in the box with Seager away from goal and the game settled in to an evenly matched deadlock that lasted until halftime.
The Thunder wasted another opportunity in the opening minute of the second half when Sosnovich's clearance was stolen by #Adam Blackman#, but Blackman's hurried shot went wide right of the empty net and the game remained scoreless.
Finally in the 50th minute, Wheaton found open space on an even numbers break. Blackman's shot from the right was initially saved by Sosnovich, but the ball rolled loose to #Mitchell Paur# (PICTURED RIGHT) who rolled the ball into the back of the net to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead.
The game remained a one-goal spread until #Marshall Hollingsworth# found room for a right footed blast that was again saved by Sosnovich. This time it was Blackman who cleaned up the loose ball to provide the final score of 2-0.
With the victory Wheaton improves to 17-3-3 and will advance to next Friday's Round of 16 where they will await the winner of the Dominican and DePauw at a location to be determined by the NCAA.
Centre finishes their season with a record of 15-4-3.
