PARKLAND - Pacific Lutheran scored a pair of first-half goals,
then survived the final 30 minutes of the match down two
players to take a thrilling 2-0 win over Whitworth in a Northwest
Conference men's soccer match played Saturday at the PLU field.
With their their fourth straight win, and their third
consecutive shutout, the Lutes improved their overall record to
7-5-1 and their conference mark to 6-2-0, good for 18 points.
Pacific, which defeated Willamette 1-0 on Saturday, leads the
league with 19 points on a 6-1-1 record. Whitworth, which came into
the match in third place, drops to 7-4-1 overall and 4-3-1 in the
conference. With 13 points, the Pirates trail third-place Linfield,
which has 15 points on a 5-3-0 record.
Chad Kearns
scored his conference- and single-season high 13th goal of the
season to give the Lutes the lead at the 31:57 mark. Kearns took a
pass from Aaron
Grossberg, spun from a defender and hit a 10-yard, left-footed
rocket past Whitworth keeper Kyle Novak. The Lutes made it 2-0 at
39:21 when Lucas
McCallum took a pass from Tom Molyneux-Elliot and
blasted a right-footed shot into the far-side netting, just beyond
Novak's lunging dive.
By the end of the first half, PLU held an 8-1 advantage in
shots, but the Pirates came out blazing in the early minutes of the
second period, forcing several big saves from PLU frosh keeper Joe
Rayburn.
The game changed with 30 minutes remaining when the Lutes had
two players dismissed. Kearns was shown a red card for a late
tackle, and in an ensuing shoving match Surafel Wodajo picked up his
second yellow card, ending his day. Whitworth players Nic Shaw and
Devin Merrill both were given yellow-card bookings on the play.
Whitworth had a two-player advantage the rest of the way but
couldn't break through the nine-man Lutes defense. The Pirates got
off 12 shots and five corner kicks, but blocks by several
PLU defenders and five more Rayburn saves kept a clean sheet
for the frosh keeper, who has three shutouts this season. All of
Rayburn's eight saves came in the final 45 minutes.
Whitworth ended up taking a total of 17 shots in the second half
and held an 18-10 advantage in that category, in addition to taking
six corner kicks to just one for PLU.
Both teams return to action at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, the Lutes
hosting Whitman and Whitworth playing at Puget Sound.
- PLU -
