LACEY, Wash. – The Pacific Lutheran University men's soccer team has a lot to be looking forward to next fall.  The three-time defending Northwest Conference Champions won the unofficial 'state championship' against their NWC foes and completed the regular season sweep of NCAA Division II neighbor St. Martin's University with a dominating 4-1 win today. 
 
"We are pretty excited about how we are playing to finish the season," said PLU Head Coach John Yorke.  "We definitely have had a year of positive growth.  We are really young and this season has been so valuable for our team.  I'm very proud of the way the guys have committed themselves to being the best they could possibly be this year."
 
It didn't take long for sophomore Dane Helle to make his presence known to the Saints.  Just 13 seconds into the match, Helle took a pass from Keeton Heggerness and blasted the game's first shot past the St. Martin's keeper.  In the 16^th minute, Helle made it 2-for-2 as he scored an unassisted goal on the second shot of the match to give the visitors an unsurmountable 2-0 advantage. 
 
In the second half, it was freshman Brandt Kelly who became the star of the show.  Kelly scored in the 67^th minute and in the 72^nd minute to push the score up to 4-0 in favor of the Lutes.  Junior Archie Caldwell assisted on Kelly's first goal for his 11^th point of the season. 
 
Despite the late goal for the Saints, the Lute defense was stellar and did not allow a shot until over an hour of game clock had been played.  Lucas Hempen made three saves to earn the victory for PLU. 
 
"Now we have to do the work in the offseason to make sure that we don't go into the fall having taken steps backwards by not being prepared," said Yorke.  "This team has a chance to be very good if they decide to put the work in to get ready for fall season.  Overall, I've been extremely happy with these guys and have high expectations for this group of players moving forward.