Corban's Arsinio Walker scored the game-winning goal on this shot, as the Warriors moved to the top of the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings with a victory over Northwest Wednesday on Warrior Field.
Corban Shuts Out Northwest to Remain Unbeaten, Moves to Top of CCC Standings
BOX SCORE
SALEM, Ore. – Forward Arsinio Walker scored the game's lone goal in the 48th minute and goalkeeper Jordan Farr registered his third straight shutout, as Corban University extended its season-opening winning streak to six games with a 1-0 victory over Northwest University Wednesday at Warrior Field.
With today's win, Corban (6-0-0, 3-0-0 CCC) moved to the top of the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings through the opening three games and hold a one-game lead over Northwest and Evergreen.
On the other hand, Northwest (4-3-0, 2-1-0 CCC) had its three-game winning streak snapped today and have now lost three of its last four games against Corban dating back to the 2011 CCC Tournament semifinals.
Today's victory also etched the 2013 version of Warrior soccer in the record book, as Corban equaled then-Western Baptist's 1990 squad that also began the season unbeaten in its first six games.
A scoreless first half saw Corban register two more shots (5-to-3) than Northwest despite the visiting Eagles putting one more shot on-target (3-to-2).
Early in the second half, Corban would take advantage of wet conditions with Walker capitalizing on a misplayed clearance by Northwest's keeper Joe Galbraith to score his second goal of the season.
In an attempt to clear the ball away from his own end on a goal kick, Galbraith slipped during his kicking motion and saw the ball fall to Walker's feet. With an Eagle player on his hip, Walker headed towards the goal and found himself in a one-on-one position against Galbraith after dispatching of NU's last defender. After Galbraith guessed wrong by diving to his right, Walker slipped a shot into the opposite corner for the eventual game-winner at the 47:30 mark.
This is the first time since Corban's season-opening victory at Simpson that Walker has scored despite putting four shots on-goal in three games.
Corban would have two other scoring chances in the second half only to have both goals erased due to offside calls.
The Warriors' Kemar Prince would get the first scoring opportunity for the Warriors in the 66th minute when he received a pass from teammate Andrew Stenberg and headed in Corban's second goal only to have the offsides' flag raised by the sideline official and the goal waved off.
In the 86th minute, Corban's Derik Chaney and Bobby Hutchin would capitalize on Northwest applying offensive pressure by getting behind the Eagles' defense resulting in a 2-on-1 advantage. Battling against Northwest's keeper, Chaney would slot a pass to Hutchin underneath the diving Galbraith only to see the offsides' flag raised again that nullifed another Corban goal.
In a physical game that saw 16 combined fouls and one yellow card, Corban seemed to take advantage of the field conditions and the state of mind of some of the Northwest players that were getting upset at what they deemed were questionable calls by the officials.
Farr registered his third straight shutout for Corban thanks to a season-high four saves, while Northwest's Galbraith tallied a game-high eight saves despite suffering the heart-breaking loss.
Overall, Corban tallied 12 more shots (17-to-5) than Northwest with the Warriors putting nine shots on-goal versus the Eagles' four.
Both teams will return to action on Saturday, September 28th, when Corban hosts The Evergreen State College at 3:00 p.m. in Salem and Northwest continues its road trip against Northwest Christian at 5:00 p.m. in Eugene.