TACOMA,Wash.— The Pacific Lutheran University men's soccer powered past the Pacific University Boxers (Ore.) 4-1 on Saturday afternoon.
PLU improves to 5-3-1 overall, 4-0-1 Northwest Conference Play. Lutes now sit 2nd in the NWC table behind Whitman and are winners of the last four straight contests against the Boxers.
"We had a very good start to the game and scored some excellent goals," Head Coach
John Yorke stated."I thought our decision making was very solid and we met a lot of the expectations we had set for ourselves. Linfield will provide a tough challenge tomorrow. They are well coached and always work really hard. We will need to be the best version of ourselves tomorrow to find success."
Lutes got hot early scoring the 26th minute a clever series of passes from
Yuta Shimazu and
Mike Murega to free up
Owen Bliskis who tucked in a shot near post to give PLU the lead 1-0. PLU was hungry for more as
Ty Brunner ricocheted a shot off the Boxer keeper finding Murega not more than a minute later with an empty net 2-0. Bliskis would finish off the first half nailing a penalty kick in th 31st minute 3-0 Lutes.
Alvin Kamau joined the goal party starting the second half with a convincing header off a free kick service from
Misha Turchaninov in the 46th minute 4-0. The Boxers would then rally and get a chipped goal from 40 yards out after a back line mistake to make the score 4-1.
A total of 17 players entered the game today off the bench and played solid minutes for the Lutes.
"It was nice to be able to get some players into the game for some extra minutes," Yorke mentioned. "It is always good when you can give players opprotunities to develop and strengthen the depth of the squad."
After two goals today, Bliskis now leads the Lutes in goals at five on the season. In goal,
Gio Aguilar-Gutierrez notches the win after playing 45 minutes and making four saves.
Chris Jamrok closed out the second half logging 45 minutes and five total saves.
Jamie Bloomstine logged his 600th appearance as a Lute both as a player and coach.
Pacific Lutheran University resumes play tomorrow October 5th at 2:45 PM against Linfield University.
