PORTLAND, Ore. - Ellie Johnson tallied two goals in less than four minutes apart as the two-time defending Northwest Conference Champion Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team dispatched host Lewis & Clark College 2-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Neither team was able to find the back of the net through the opening 58 minutes of play. Johnson broke open the scoreless deadlock ion the 59th minute, scoring off a feed from
Liz Griffith.
Johnson continued to put her foot on the pedal, scoring her second goal of the game and her fourth of the season just three minutes and 10 seconds later for what proved to be the final goal of the afternoon.
Tasha Tennyson was credited with the assist on the second goal, her first helper of her collegiate career.
The Lutes (5-2-2, 4-1 NWC) outshot the Pioneers (3-6-1, 1-5 NWC) 15-8, including registering eight of the nine shots on goal.
"It was a tough game today, Lewis & Clark is as good as we've ever seen them and playing good soccer," said Head Coach
Seth Spidahl. "We had a hard time breaking them down in the first half. We made a couple of adjustments after halftime and we had two great goals. Credit to
Leah Magee and Liz, they did a lot of the work and obviously Ellie finished in the first goal. Second goal we've been on Tasha about cutting the ball back at an angle and she had a great cutback and Ellie ran hard in the box and finished it. To get those two goals in four minutes was the game. Other than that it was a fairly even."
Natalie Robinson collected her sixth shutout of the season in goal, making one save in 90 minutes of work. L&C's Megan Sawyer made five saves in 77 minutes of work with Milan Davis handling the match's final 13 minutes, making one save.
"Proud of the team, Lewis & Clark is never an easy place to play at, we tied there last year, so we're excited about how this started but we'll keep our heads down and prepare for NWC game number six tomorrow."
The Lutes return to the pitch tomorrow at 12 p.m., facing Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
