Appearing in the CCIW Tournament for the seventh time in eight years, the Carthage men’s soccer team had its season come to an end with a 3-0 loss to No. 17 Wheaton in a semifinal match Tuesday night at Joe Bean Stadium in Wheaton, Ill.

The third-seeded Red Men finished 7-8-4.

Second-seeded Wheaton (14-3-2) will play either Elmhurst (12-3-3) or Augustana (6-9-3) in the championship on Saturday. Top-seeded Elmhurst hosts Augustana in the other semifinal tonight. The champion receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Carthage has lost in the semifinals in six of its seven CCIW tourney appearances.

After a scoreless first half, the Thunder tallied the game-winning goal on a penalty kick by Matt Swartz at 57 minutes, 33 seconds.

Wheaton broke it open with two goals in the span of less than a minute with seven minutes remaining. A header by Dan Pavlak, assisted by Swartz, made it 2-0 at 82:52. A second header goal by Stephen Mesko, assisted by Jason Lollar, completed the scoring at 83:37.

The Thunder, who lead the all-time series with Carthage 18-1-2, outshot the Red Men, 22-11.

Carthage’s Jordan Baker won the CCIW’s offensive award while Wheaton’s Damon Brown garnered the defensive honor, the league announced Tuesday.

Baker, a sophomore defender-midfielder from Lisle, Ill., scored Carthage’s only goal in a 1-0 win over Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, Ill., on Sunday. The unassisted tally, at 48:53, secured Carthage a spot in the CCIE tourney.

Compiled by Andrew Horschak