The North Coast Athletic Conference season keeps throwing challenges at The College of Wooster men's soccer team, but they keep finding ways to keep that zero in their loss column.
 
Fresh off a grueling draw against third-ranked Denison University earlier in the week, Wooster hosted Wabash College on Saturday and collected its first conference win, 2-1.
 
Wooster got a huge score in the opening minutes of the game that proved dividends later. Junior Robert Hillhouse hit classmate Aris Christodolou on the cross to put Wooster ahead in just the seventh minute.
 
The score was Christodolou's sixth goal of the year, tying Elliot Miller for the team lead.
 
A wrench was thrown in Wooster's plans in the 11th minute as senior Jacob Fried was issued a red card for stopping an open scoring opportunity, and that forced Wooster to play a man down for the remainder of the game.
 
The result of the play was a free kick just outside the box that ultimately led to a pair of blocked shots. Wabash stayed on the attack for much of the game from that point going forward, forcing Wooster be conservative.
 
That worked well enough in the first half, keeping the Little Giants scoreless. However, the Little Giants were dominating possession and outshooting Wooster 12-5 and leading the corner kick advantage 6-0.
 
Eventually, Wabash would pull through, scoring in the 66th minute off the foot of Bryce Kinnaman.
 
Wooster's sense of urgency grew from there, and one of their attacks would connect in the 79th minute. Hillhouse sent a ball in finding Miller, who put the ball in front of the goal for junior Taylor Uszacki to chest-bump in.
 
It was Uszacki's third score of the year and Miller's conference leading seventh assist.
 
Wooster held on from there, with their attack outshooting Wabash 9-4 in the half. Yet, for the game, Wabash took 16 shots to Wooster's 14 and held the corner kick advantage 8-0.
 
Sophomore keeper Eddie Glucksman made five saves. Wabash's Colin Sutter made three.
 
Wooster collects three major points in the NCAC, moving to 9-0-4 overall and 1-0-2 in the conference. Wabash drops to 5-8 overall and 1-2 in the NCAC.
 
The Scots return home Wednesday to host John Carroll University for another NCAC matchup.