On Tuesday afternoon, the men’s soccer team pulled off a 1-0 victory at Wheaton College, ranked 13th in the country, maintaining their undefeated record. Goalkeeper Adam Purdy ’13 played the entire game, completing his third shutout in a row and fourth of the season. The Lyons who were the number-two ranked team in New England going into the game, while Wesleyan entered at fourth place.

Matches between the two teams have always been extremely close. Wesleyan is 3-4-1 in the eight meetings and has never scored more than a goal against the Lyons or allowed more than two.

The scoring play started with Geoff Zartarian ’11, who passed the ball across the box to Keisuke Yamashita ‘10, who scored in the 28th minute of the game. This proved to be the game-winner as Wheaton, despite a 15-9 edge in shots, could not get the ball past Purdy, who made four saves in the contest. Three of these came in the second half, the last coming with just 12 minutes remaining and the pressure on. Purdy currently leads the NESCAC with a goals-against average of 0.32 and a save percentage of .920. This successful rookie campaign has given stability to the team, though the entire squad is putting forth a remarkable effort.

This 4-0-2 start to the season is the Cardinals’ second-best since 1992. Their next test may be the hardest yet, as they travel to Trinity to challenge another highly ranked team. The Bantams were ranked third in New England and number 22 nationally at the beginning of this week. They are also tied with Wesleyan and Williams for the top spot in the NESCAC standings at 2-0-1. Trinity has taken two in a row against Wesleyan, including a 3-1 win in Middletown last year, but the Cardinals took five of the six matches from 2001-06. Saturday’s action gets underway at noon.