Box Score MONMOUTH, Ore.--With a 4-2 win over Northwest Nazarene, the Western Oregon Wolves have climbed into first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

For the moment anyway.

The Wolves won their fourth match in a row on Saturday morning at the WOU Soccer Field, earning their 17th GNAC point, one digit more than Seattle Pacific (16). The Falcons play in a few hours against St. Martin's with a chance to move back ahead of WOU.

But for the a few hours at the very least, first place feels pretty good.

"It's crunch time in the GNAC and the squad is locked in," said Wolves head coach Andrew May.. "We started the game great with an early goal that set the tone. We stayed determined to get the win even after NNU tied it up and was putting us under pressure."

Western Oregon is now 9-3-5 on the season and 5-1-2 in conference play. The Nighthawks dropped to 8-4-6 overall and to 3-3-3 in league play. 

The scoring started very early for Western Oregon. Archie Dhima fired a shot into the lower left corner of the goal just 1:33 into the contest, off a pass from Will Boyle. It was the 16th goal of the season for the sharpshooter, double that of what anyone else in the conference has. It is Dhima's fourth straight match with a goal, and his 16 tallies is the most in the GNAC since 2019. The redshirt freshman's goal total is tied for fourth most in conference single-season history.

The Wolves added another right before the end of the half when Jacob Solek found Evan Huber open for the shot and score. That gave WOU a 2-0 lead at the break.

But the Nighthawks stormed back in the second half. Just two minutes after intermission, NNU's Caleb Putney drew his team within one score with a goal, and after a WOU foul, Putney knocked home the penalty kick to tie the match at 2-2 in the 55th minute. 

The score stayed knotted for the next 20 minutes before NNU tradgedy struck with an 'own" goal to give the lead back to the Wolves. One minute later, WOU added insurance with Ignacio Brandan's winner, assisted again by Solek to make it 4-2.

After 90 minutes, NNU had more shots than WOU (18-12), but shots on goal were even at 10-10. Corner kicks were also the same at 5-5. 

Western Oregon is now on a season-best four-match winning streak. Their last non-win was a 0-0 tie with NNU two weeks ago in Nampa. 

Two matches remain for the Wolves in their fight for a GNAC title, both next week on the road. On Thursday (Oct. 29) they will be across the border at Simon Fraser and on Saturday they will be at Western Washington. 

"Last home game for the seniors and a nice way to send them off," May added. "We are now on the road against two tough opponents. These games will decide the GNAC league champion."