Women’s Soccer adds two wins to their win streak

October 5, 2017
After beating North Park University in dominating fashion, the Thunder carried momentum into Wednesday’s game against Carthage College, which spurred them on to another decisive victory.
The Wheaton Thunder hosted the North Park Vikings on Saturday, Sept. 30 for a homecoming weekend game at 4:30 p.m. Wheaton shut out the Vikings 7-0 thanks to strong performances by freshman Isabelle Oliver and senior Morgan Whitman. Once again, the Thunder started senior goalkeeper Kathryn McGregor in the first period, but Wheaton dominated offensive possession and kept the ball out of their own zone for nearly the entire half. North Park did not have a single shot in the first period.
Meanwhile, Wheaton had 20 shots in the first period alone, and two of the shots made it past the Viking goalie to put Wheaton up 2-0 at the end of the first. Both goals are credited to Oliver, who has proved her worth to the Thunder by scoring five goals in the three games since the Calvin 5-0 victory where she scored the first goal of her career two weeks ago.
Wheaton came onto the field in the second period with the same amount of dominance. They had 22 shots throughout the second period, and five of those shots were scores. Whitman scored a pair of goals to continue her strong year of scoring, and around the 65th minute, junior midfielder Hannah Cockrum scored. Junior forward Lauren Wilkes scored, and junior midfielder and forward Sammy Nishiyama quickly followed suit.
Yesterday afternoon the Thunder beat the Carthage Lady Reds 5-1. Both teams remained scoreless until the 25th minute of the game when Whitman scored a header off of an assist by Oliver to put Wheaton up 1-0. Neither team would score again until the second period.
Junior midfielder Anna Saunders found the net 46 seconds into the second period to score her first goal of the season. Less than 10 minutes later, Whitman scored her second goal of the game. Around the 60-minute mark, Sammy Nishiyama scored Wheaton’s fourth goal during the game and her second goal of the season. Sophomore midfielder and forward Sarah Gencarella also scored her first goal of the season around the 66th minute. Carthage did not score until they made a penalty kick with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
As of Wednesday afternoon before their victory over Carthage, Wheaton was the fourth ranked team in the CCIW with a conference record of 1-0 and an overall record of 4-4-2. Wheaton’s CCIW record has improved to 2-0 and their overall record is now 5-4-2.
Wheaton will travel to Carroll University on Saturday, Oct. 7 for another strong CCIW matchup at 57 p.m. Carroll was ranked sixth in the conference as of Wednesday afternoon.