Box Score MONMOUTH, Ore.--Archie Dhima scored twice and WOU goalkeeper
Austin Valdez led a stout defensive effort with seven saves to lead the Wolves to a 2-1 GNAC showdown win over Seattle Pacific on Thursday afternoon at the WOU Soccer Field.
The Western Oregon victory covered a number of milestones for the Wolves. It moved them into sole possession of second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference at 4-1-2, and they improved to 8-3-4 overall. They snapped SPU's five-match winning streak to drop the Falcons to 5-2-1 in the GNAC and to 12-3-1 overall. They also gained a measure of revenge over the first-place Falcons, who defeated the Wolves two weeks ago in Seattle, 3-2.
Seattle Pacific still leads the GNAC with 16 points, while the Wolves picked up a critical three points and now have 14. SPU came into the match ranked fourth in the official NCAA Division II West Region rankings, with the Wolves listing at No. 12.
Dhima got the Wolves on the board first on a beautiful afternoon in Monmouth, drilling a shot into the upper left corner of the net after taking a pass from
Evan Huber. That 1-0 lead held up to the halftime break.
But Seattle Pacific answered soon after intermission on Judah Straight's score at 49:40 to tie the match at 1-1. From there a tug-a-war began with plenty of shots but no scoring.
Until 84:01 when a Falcon foul sent Dhima to the penalty kick spot, where he calmly converted his 15th goal of the year, sending the Wolves into celebration.
But the match was far from over. Seattle Pacific managed five shots in the final four minutes, with three of them saved by Valdez, one was blocked and one went high.
The Falcons looked better on the stat sheet with 28 shots to Western Oregon's 13. But they were just one shot better in shots-on-goal at 9-8. The Falcons had the corner kick advantage at 7-1.
"Great win today against a tough opponent," said Wolves head coach
Andrew May. "It's crunch time and the GNAC is all to play for. This win keeps us going to achieve our goal.
"A solid defensive effort from the boys today. We really needed to grind and stay focused on our jobs. When we needed guys to make plays, they made plays. Archie has been able to maintain such form throughout the season and got two more goals today."
The Wolves have just three regular season matches left, with their final home game coming on Saturday against Northwest Nazarene at 10 am.
