MARION, Ind. -- Eight Wildcat seniors were honored tonight as Indiana Wesleyan University men’s soccer upended Spring Arbor (Mich.) 1-0 in Crossroads League action at Wildcat Field.

Indiana Wesleyan held Senior Night on Wednesday and celebrated with a victory that has moved the team into first place all alone in the Crossroads League. Grace (Ind.), who was tied with IWU, played to a scoreless draw at Marian (Ind.) to separate the two teams that were tied atop the standings. The final regular season match for both teams will be played on Saturday.

The eight players recognized for Senior Night were:  Keaton Albert (SR/Park City, Ill.), Kyle Beimers (SR/Grand Rapids, Mich.), Johnny Fredericks (SR/Arlington Heights, Ill.), Josh Goepper (SR/Shelby Township, Mich.), Jonathan Hampton (JR/Dakar, Senegal), Seth Kintigh (SR/Concord, Mich.), Taylor Lehman (SR/Indianapolis, Ind.), and Corey Lopez (SR/Warsaw, Ind.).

“It was an awesome opportunity to acknowledge and recognize such an amazing group of people,” said Wildcat head coach Luke Sanford. “Anyone who has spent any amount of time around the program the last four years knows the quality of people that these guys are. They are fantastic players and I don’t want to take that away from them, but what I’m going to miss most about these guys as a coach is the quality of people they are.”

The seniors played extremely well in the victory and made a huge impact on the game. Two seniors teamed up for the only goal of the match in the 20th minute. Albert was at midfield and played a ball up to Lopez who beat the keeper for the 1-0 score.

“I am really proud of this group of seniors,” said Sanford. “It was really cool to see them all play well tonight and the goal was Keaton to Corey. We have seen that before. I am glad we can send them out this way.”

Indiana Wesleyan doubled up Spring Arbor in shots by a 12-6 margin and held a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal. Goepper made two saves to earn the shutout in net for Indiana Wesleyan.

The Wildcats have won eight consecutive matches to improve to 12-4-0 this season and 7-1-0 in league play. The Cougars drop to 9-6-2 and 4-3-1 in the league.

The Crossroads League regular season championship is now in view for Indiana Wesleyan as the Wildcats control their own destiny. An Indiana Wesleyan win on Saturday at Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) would clinch the teams’ fourth consecutive league championship.