Contact: Sam Fretto, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, sjfretto@noctrl.edu
WHEATON, Ill. (Oct. 29, 2025)- Needing a win to clinch the two seed in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Tournament, the North Central College men's soccer team (8-1-8, 4-0-4 CCIW) traveled to Wheaton College (11-2-4, 7-0-1 CCIW) and came away with a 2-2 tie after falling down 2-0 early.
North Central had an early look at the goal with Gege Nikiema beating one of two defenders going to his right. With an angle to work with, Nikiema fired, but a perfectly placed Wheaton goalkeeper, Jack Krahel, saved the ball.
The Cardinals' 2-0 deficit began at the 10:11 mark of the match with North Central being charged with an own goal. Wheaton's offensive attack allowed them to play out wide, and a ball that was meant to be a pass from the Thunders' player ended up deflecting off a Cardinal on its way to the zone and ricocheting into the goal.
The second goal was conceded in the 17th minute after a cross from Wheaton was knocked out of bounds by a Cardinals' defenseman, leading to a corner kick. The corner kick allowed the Thunder to set the offense up in front of the net. As the kick sailed off the foot of Wes Seneff, Wheaton's Jack Kern got behind the defense and skied up for the header and played it to the right of Vincent Stanislao.
In search of a response, the Cardinals scored two goals within five minutes of each other, one from Aleks Duncevic and one from Griffin French, as North Central's counterattacks gave them offensive life.
A Thunder turnover in the midfield, picked off by Duncevic, gave the Cardinals an opportunity to chip into the deficit. Off the turnover, French played the ball ahead to Nikiema, who nearly lost possession but passed out to reset the offense. With possession, French dumped a pass to Morgan Kurseth, who found a cutting Duncevic. Duncevic took the ball deep into the box and fired a low rolling shot with his left foot to the right of the net at the 31:34 mark in the first half.
An errant pass by Wheaton trying to clear the ball from the North Central offensive zone allowed French to score the equalizing 2-2 goal. Duncevic recovered the misplaced pass and played it up to French standing at the top of the 18-yard box on the left side. French went to his right foot and snuck the ball past a diving Krahel to his left, evening the score at 36:02.
A quiet second half for both teams livened up in the 69th minute as the Cardinals were looking for the game-winning goal off the foot of Will Mayer. Receiving a through ball from Nikiema, Mayer played the ball deep into the Wheaton zone and unloaded a shot to a jumping Krahel as he made the save, leading to a North Central corner kick. Ultimately, the Cardinals came away empty with their corner kick.
The 2-2 score was preserved after a strong defensive sequence by the Cardinals and Stanislao in the 78th minute. The corner taken by Wheaton was placed to the top of the goal, and Stanislao rose up and punched it out to send Wheaton to another corner kick. The second time, Cooper Falling received the corner and had a look at the net, but Stanislao saved the header.
French booted his eighth goal of the season, with Duncevic scoring his second in the draw with Wheaton. Wheaton had six shots on goal to North Central's five, while North Central made five saves and Wheaton had three.
At the conclusion of the regular season, North Central is the three seed in the CCIW Tournament and will be hosting the Carthage College Firebirds, who finished as the six seed. Their matchup earlier in the season ended in a 2-2 draw. The quarterfinal round of the tournament is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 1, inside of Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium, with a time to be announced.
