Knights Win Wild Affair vs. OIT, 4-3
GLADSTONE, Ore. --- The Warner Pacific men’s soccer team defeated the Oregon Tech Owls 4-3 Friday afternoon, improving their record to 11-5-0 on the year and 7-3-0 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Davor Lukic had two goals for the Knights, who finish the regular season on Sunday, October 26 at Evergreen State before hosting a CCC tournament game at Gladstone High School on November 1 at 1:00 p.m.. The Owls fall to 3-12-1 and 2-8-0 in CCC play.The game marked the final regular season home game for Knights seniors Lukic, Chris Croft, Julio Loza, Jaxin Skyward, Luis Galvan and Chris Price.
It was another exciting and high-scoring affair for the Knights, as the game featured everything from Warner Pacific scoring two goals within 30 seconds of each other to the Owls scoring in the final 10 seconds of the game. The Knights were relentless attacking the Oregon Tech goal, amassing 30 shots for the game.
After several near misses for both teams in the early going, Lukic put the Knights ahead 1-0 in the 29th minute when Price sent a ball into the box that Lukic got a foot on amid a cluster of players and the ball bounced into the net. Just 27 seconds later, Lukic scored again to give the Knights a 2-0 lead after receiving a pass from Alija Sacorivic and curling a nice left-footed shot into the goal from 10 yards out. Lukic now has a team-high 12 goals on the season.
Oregon Tech cut the lead to 2-1 with just five minutes left in the first half when Jory Lum came off the bench to score an unassisted goal when he made a long run past the Warner Pacific defense and sent a low shot into the right side of the net past diving Knights keeper Ted Latta.
Warner Pacific went ahead 3-1 on what may be the goal of the season for the Knights, when freshman Evan Lehner rocketed a beautiful 30 yard shot into the Owls goal that keeper Travis Billie had no chance to save. After his strike, Lehner found himself on the bottom of an excited dog pile as his teammates celebrated his brilliant goal.
Once again, the Hustlin’ Owls cut the lead to one goal when Ian Van Der Zwan found the back of the net from five yards out after receiving a cross from Lum in the 67th minute. But the Knights responded in kind with four minutes remaining when freshman Juan Castillo found the net from five yards out after a nice back-heel pass from Lukic.
In keeping with the thrilling nature of the game, the Owls managed to make things interesting at the end when they cut the lead to 4-3 with seven seconds remaining when Dylan Durrell made a nice individual effort to get past the Knight defense and send a shot past Latta after a long run.
But the final horn finally sounded with the Knights taking the 4-3 win. Warner Pacific returns to Gladstone High School for a Cascade Conference tournament game on November 1 at 1 p.m. Full details for the match will be made available on www.wpcknights.com when the information becomes available.