Tacoma, Wash.--- The Pacific Lutheran University Lutes second-half flurry catalyzed a 3-0 Northwest Conference win over Lewis & Clark College on Sunday.

"To open conference play with two wins and six points is the ideal way to start the season, so I'm very pleased with this weekend," Head Coach John Yorke stated. "We are continuing to grow in to ourselves as a team. Seeing the progress we are making is very satisfying. Moving ahead to this Wednesday, we always looking forward to the opportunity to compete with UPS. They are a good team with good players and are well coached. Wednesday night should be a fun game."

A strong first half for PLU with 22 shots and seven corner kicks which resulted in zero goals. The Pioneers goalkeeper, Micaiah Garan, kept his side in the game in the first half saving seven shots. The Lutes finally broke through in the 61st minute when Connor O'Brien service deflected off a Pioneer and Quinn Bieber one-timed straight in to the bottom corner to give PLU the 1-0 lead. Bieber wasn't finished laying a pass out wide to Ty Brunner who proceeded to make one Pioneer defender miss placing a shot in the corner in the 85th minute 2-0 PLU. Three minutes later, Misha Turchaninov drew a penalty kick by shooting a free-kick just outside the 18-yard box right in to a Pioneer which resulted in a hand ball. Turchaninov calmly stepped up to the line and placed the kick in to the opposite corner making the keeper dive the wrong way closing the game at 3-0.

Pacific Lutheran has now won 12 straight matches against Lewis & Clark. The Lutes out shot the Pioneers 39-5 today and overall in the last 12 match ups have outscored Lewis & Clark 50-7.

Gio Aguilar-Gutierrez gets the win for the Lutes playing 45 minutes in the second half earning his second straight win in net.

https://x.com/golutes/status/1969941616543793621

Pacific Lutheran improves to 3-3 overall and 2-0 NWC play. Lutes return to play Wednesday, September 24th as they take on cross-town rivals Puget Sound at 6:30 PM.