Thomas Clark shared the shutout.
Another Shutout as Evergreen Tops Beacons, 4-0
The Evergreen State College stayed in the hunt for a second-place league finish by defeating visiting Northwest Christian, 4-0, in a Cascade Collegiate Conference men's soccer match played Friday afternoon at Geoduck Pitch.
The Geoducks (12-2-1 overall, 10-2-1 CCC) stayed within two points of second-place Corban and have a chance to leapfrog the Warriors when the two teams conclude their 2015 regular seasons at noon Saturday at Geoduck Pitch.
Goalkeeper Thomas Clark got his second start of the season for Evergreen and made one save before Ben Stevenson replaced him at the intermission. Stevenson picked up a pair of second-half saves as the Geoducks registered their ninth shutout of the season. Today's match marked the second time that Clark and Stevenson have shared a clean sheet for the Geoducks.
Evergreen scored a pair of goals in each half with the first two coming from usual sources and the final two going to first-time finishers.
Juan Oropeza got Evergreen's first of the match at 17:43, finishing from short range after a nice build up down the right side. Issa Hassan drove down the right wing and crossed to Tanner Williams, who touched the ball to Oropeza to put into the net for his third tally this year.
Willie Spurr got his seventh goal of the season from the penalty spot, scoring at 35:31 after getting pulled down in the box.
While the shot attempts were close at the break, Evergreen did more with their eight attempts by putting five on frame. NCU, meanwhile, put just one of their six shots on goal.
The third Evergreen goal came from Kevin Day, who was making his first appearance of the season. Connor Beck got the ball on the right wing, worked it to the end line and then crossed it back through the defense and in front of goal. Day, unmarked on the back post, scored easily at 56:29.
Jake Zimmerman, who had not played since suffering an injury in an Oct. 10 win over Oregon Tech, ended the scoring at 64:11 with his first tally of the campaign. He was in the right place to put the ball into the net after Northwest Christian keeper John Castro initially saved Tanner Williams' shot. Williams ended up with his second assist of the match and now has 12 for the season.
The final shot differential showed Evergreen with 14 compared to 11 for NCU, but the Geoducks put eight of theirs on target compared to just three for the Beacons. Corner kicks favored Evergreen, 2-1.