Kaitlin Poe
Amanda Loman
0
Concordia Portland CU (2-7-0, 0-3-0 GNAC)
2
Winner Western Ore. WOU (5-3-2, 2-1-1 GNAC)
Concordia Portland CU
(2-7-0, 0-3-0 GNAC)
0
Final
2
Western Ore. WOU
(5-3-2, 2-1-1 GNAC)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Concordia Portland CU 0 0 0
Western Ore. WOU 1 1 2

Game Recap: Women's Soccer | | Brian Kortz

Soccer Defeats Concordia for the First Time Since 2000 Following 2-0 Victory

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Another Great Northwest Athletic Conference game and another big win for the Western Oregon University soccer team. After defeating Seattle Pacific for the first time in 17 years, the Wolves kept the momentum going with a 2-0 win over Concordia for the first time in 19 years on Thursday.

"The ladies showed up for another big game today. We challenged them before the game to get a goal in the first half," Head Coach Kacey Bingham said. "We keep giving them new challenges each week and they continue to show their drive for excellence. They really had to put in a strong team effort to get the shutout today."

It's the second straight 2-0 conference win for WOU (5-3-2, 2-1-1 GNAC) as they also defeated Seattle Pacific 2-0 using a pair of second half markers to take down the Falcons.

The win was the first against Concordia since 2000 when the Wolves picked up the 4-1 victory also in Monmouth. The two goals also snaps a string of the Cavaliers outscoring the Wolves 9-0 in the previous three games.

It was a close game in terms of shots as well with WOU outshooting Concordia (2-7-0, 0-3-0 GNAC) just 10-9, but had a big 6-2 edge in terms of shots on goal. Alex Qualls played all 90 minutes and made a pair of saves to record her second straight shutout and third on the season. It's her fourth overall on the season after picking up a combined shutout in the season opener against Western Colorado.

"We've just gone 110 percent with every game so far and I'm just really proud of everyone on the backline for sticking to it and the forwards for getting the goals on our home field," Qualls said.

WOU also had nine corner kicks to six for the Cavaliers, while the teams combined for 24 fouls with 16 whistled on the Wolves. Corner kicks proved the difference with the Wolves knocking home both of their goals off of corner chances.

Early on Qualls had to turn away a shot just over three minutes in. Chances were hard to come by throughout the opening half before a key corner kick arrived in the 30th minute. Selene Konyn took the corner for the Wolves and sent a nice ball in the box that found Jacky Beristain as she was able to crash in from the far post to knock in her second goal of the season and the 1-0 WOU lead.

"I think we just put in our heads that if we come out to outwork the other teams than we can beat any team we play," Beristain said.

To start the second half, Isabelle Creighton just missed on a chance just over a minute in and after a rush by the Cavaliers, WOU was able to flip the field to jump out to a two-goal lead.

In the 60th minute, Konyn took a corner kick that just missed on a couple of chances, but the Wolves fought and were able to get another corner kick a minute later. This time Alyssa Tomasini took the kick and she was able to hit a ball towards the near post that bounced around, almost going in, before Kaitlin Poe was able to find room to knock home her second goal of the season and a 2-0 lead in the 61st minute.

"We've known what we've been capable of so it's really exciting now that's it's all coming together and we're able to show that and put games away," Poe said.

Concordia didn't go away as Qualls was forced to make a big save nearly two minutes later to keep the clean sheet for the Wolves. After Qualls' save in the 62nd minute and another chance that just went high for the Cavaliers, WOU was able to hold Concordia without a shot over the final 27-plus minutes to grab the shutout victory.

The five wins this year already matches last year's win total.

Creighton led the way with four shots and one landing on goal. Danielle VanOrd had a pair of shots with both ending up on net. Poe and Beristain made their only shots count scoring on both attempts. Konyn picked up the assist on the first goal and Tomasini added an assist on the second goal.

Jaida Nyby led Concordia with four shots and two ending up on goal. Hailey Asato went all 90 minutes in goal and turned back four saves.

WOU will now prepare to host No. 15 Western Washington on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. at the WOU Soccer Field. The Vikings improved to 8-2 overall and 4-0 in GNAC play after defeating Saint Martin's 6-0 earlier on Thursday.
 
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