WHEATON, Ill. – No. 8 Capital suffered its first loss of the season, 3-2 at Wheaton on Friday evening. With the loss, the Crusaders fall to 5-1-0 overall while the Thunder improved to 5-2-1.
In a meeting that featured Capital, which was boasting its highest national ranking in program history, and the 2006 NCAA National Runner-up Wheaton both offenses took center stage.
WC held a 24-13 lead in shots on the night while CU took five corner kicks and pressured the opposition for most of the match.
Capital got on the board first with a goal in the first half as freshman Daniel McCarthy (Centerville, Ohio/Archbishop Alter HS) sent a feed into his brother junior Steven McCarthy (Centerville, Ohio/Archbishop Alter HS) who headed the ball into the back of the net for a 1-0 Crusader lead with 10 minutes remaining in the opening stanza.
Wheaton finally countered in the 54th minute as Matt Swartz scored his second goal of the season following a pass by Joel Delass to even the match at 1-1.
The Thunder had a number of quality scoring chances in the final 25 minutes of action and capitalized in the 75th minute as Joel Delass fed the ball forward from midfield along the right side to a streaking Stephen Mesko who dribbled all the way to the right and beat the keeper to the far side for the deciding goal.
Mesko put the game out of reach in the 83rd minute when Swartz flicked the ball ahead to Mesko on the left side who dribbled around one defender and beat the charging Crusader goal keeper to the far side for a two goal advantage.
Capital tried to make a late rally as junior Josh Thaboune (Bexley, Ohio/Bexley HS) sent a cross in front of the net and as the Wheaton keeper came out to play the ball Steven McCarty stepped in front to head the ball into the goal to pull the Crusaders within one goal, but CU would get no closer in a 3-2 loss.
Senior John Snyder (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington HS) made six saves for Capital which will return home to play host to Mount St. Joseph in the finale of a women’s-men’s soccer doubleheader at Bernlohr Stadium on Sunday. The women will kickoff at 1 p.m. ET followed by the men at 3:30 p.m. ET.