TACOMA, Wash. – The Pacific Lutheran University men's soccer team got back in the win column on Saturday with an emphatic 5-0 shutout victory over visiting Linfield University at East Field. The victory coupled with a tie between Willamette University and University of Puget sound has the Lutes two points ahead of the Bearcats in the NWC race.
After a 6-0 start to Northwest Conference play, the Lutes had lost their last two home matches prior to today's victory.
Archie Caldwell opened the scoring for PLU in the 38
th minute on a pass from
Cris Lozano, who picked up his second assist in as many days.
The flood gates really opened up in the second half as the home team scored four times in a 15-minute span. Lozano found the back of the net on an assist by
Ryan Griffith to start the run in the 60
th mintue. Griffith continued his stellar passing on a
Craig Johnson goal to make the score 3-0.
Keeton Heggerness got into the act in the 66
th minute off of a
Robby Guyer pass, and
Trevor Thompson finished off the Wildcats with a beautiful shot into the upper right corner of the net on a nice pass from Caldwell in the 75th.
The Lutes were aggressive offensively all after with 35 shot attempts and 15 of them on-target. The Wildcats were held to just one attempt in the second half and eight total for the match.
Lucas Hempen picked up the win after stopping three Linfield shots.
The victory was the ninth in a row over the Wildcats and extended the Lutes' unbeaten streak to 16 straight matches against Linfield.
Another big weekend in the NWC race presents itself next weekend when the Lutes head to Whitworth University on Saturday and Whitman College on Sunday. Both kickoffs are set for 2:30 p.m.
