Red-Hot Knights Pick Up 4th Straight Victory
Boxscore
PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Warner Pacific men’s soccer team continued its torrid play, picking up its fourth straight win with a tense 1-0 victory of the Great Falls Argonauts. Andrew Scott scored the game winner with just two minutes left in the first half and the Knights’ defense did the rest as the team picked up its first shutout of the season. Warner Pacific improves to 4-1-0 while Great Falls falls to 3-3-0.
A hard-fought battle to the final whistle, the game was a back-and-forth affair for much of the run of play. Warner Pacific applied early pressure, collecting three shots and two corner kicks in the first ten minutes. Forward Chris Price nearly had a goal with a shot into an open net in the fifth minute, but an Argos defender was able to deflect the ball over the endline to preserve the scoreless tie. Great Falls recovered to record eight shots on the half, one more than Warner Pacific.
With nearly two minutes remaining in the half, Price sent a ball to the top of the box that was settled by Scott. After getting around an Argos defender, Scott ripped a shot past diving UGF keeper Zach Johnson to score his third goal of the season, with Price picking up his first assist.
It was a defensive struggle the rest of the way, with neither team able to crack the other’s defense. After Warner Pacific controlled much of the early play in the half, Great Falls once again responded with a push of their own, recording four shots in the span of five minutes midway through the half. But the Knight defense was up to the task, and Warner Pacific nearly went ahead 2-0 in the 80th minute when freshman Evan Lehner had the ball within the penalty box and an open goal, but his shot went just over the crossbar.
For the game, Warner Pacific had 18 shots to UGF’s 15 and the Knights also had a 6-4 advantage in corner Kicks. Ted Latta had four saves in between the pipes for the Knights while Johnson had six for the Argos. Kantay Locoh had a game-high four shots to pace the Argos, while Price, Lehner, and Alija Sacirovic each had three for WPC.
Warner Pacific returns to action on Sept. 13 when it travels to Western Washington before kicking of Cascade Collegiate Conference play on Sept. 16 at Evergreen State College.