GNAC Men's Soccer Daily Update

Men's Soccer: Clan Extend Win Streak to 16

Roman Doutkevitch scored on a first-half penalty kick and Josh Bennett added an unassisted goal in the second half to lead Simon Fraser to a 2-0 win at Montana State Billings (7-8-1, 2-7-0) Saturday.

Meanwhile, Seattle Pacific and Western Washington earned victories. The Falcons edged Saint Martin's 2-1 at Interbay Stadium, while the Vikings exploded for seven goals in a 7-0 home victory against Northwest Nazarene.

Simon Fraser's victory reduced the Clan's magic number for clinching the GNAC title to one. One SFU win or one Seattle Pacific tie or loss would earn the Clan (16-0, 8-0), which is ranked second nationally among NAIA schools, the title in its first season in the GNAC.

SFU coach coach Alan Koch said his team had a good effort against MSUB. "We battled through 90 minutes and while we didn't find our continuity we had a good effort, particularly from Josh Bennett, who engineered both our goals.”

Bennett was behind SFU's first goal when he was taken down inside the 18-yard box, affording Doutkevitch the penalty kick opportunity, which Doutkevitch buried to give SFU the 1-0 in the 26th minute.

Bennett added SFU's second goal in the 64th minute, firing a shot to the upper corner that beat Yellowjackets keeper Matt Mitchell.

SFU goalkeeper Hide Ozawa had three saves in posting his ninth shutout and lowering his league-leading GAA to 0.49. MSUB's Matt Mitchell was credited with six saves.

Seattle Pacific 2, Saint Martin's 1

Blaine Carver's two first-half goals rallied Seattle Pacific from an early deficit as the Falcons (9-5-2, 6-1-1) posted their sixth straight win and ninth in the last 10 games.

The Saints (7-9-0, 2-6-0), who won the conference championship last season, scored first as Xan Nixon ran on to a through ball from Austin Kelley and placed an eight-yard shot into the left corner of the SPU goal at 6:04. 

Carver answered at 12:24 for the Falcons with a put-back off a saved shot attempt by teammate Christopher Morris. SMU goalkeeper Zac Lubin deflected the hard, 20-yard shot by Morris, but the ball caromed to Carver just outside the six-yard box for the easy equalizer. 

The freshman forward scored again at 20:03 as Elliot Morton lobbed a ball into the box. Carver, who has seven goals on the season, controlled the ball in traffic with his head, dropping it to his right foot for a seven-yard volley to the right side of the goal.

Western Washington 7, Northwest Nazarene 0

Forward Kellan Brown had a hat trick leading Western Washington (8-6-2, 3-4-1) past short-handed Northwest Nazarene (7-8-0, 3-6-0) at Orca Field on the Whatcom CC campus.

Brown, who now has seven goals this season, opened the scoring just 93 seconds into the game, and concluded it with just 14 seconds left. 

His other goal came in the 71st minute.  He also had an assist, as his long free kick in the 47th minute set up a Gibson Bardsley header that gave the Vikings a 3-0 lead. 

Justin Moore, Darragh Simm and Tyler Bjork had the other goals for Western, which posted its highest goal tally since putting 10 past Colorado Christian midway through the 2008 season.

Bardsley, who entered the game second among NCAA Division II leaders in goals, had three assists to tie a GNAC single-game record for conference games shared by two others.

His goal was the 16th of the season, which leads the GNAC, and was the 39th of his career, leaving him just two short of the school-record 41 by Peter LaBarge (1989-90) with two games remaining.

Bardsley's 18 career assists rank second among Viking leaders. “We scored some quality goals,” said WWU coach Travis Connell.  “Our offense was clicking and the guys were having fun.  We'll need to play good soccer to win our last two games (against SPU and SMU), and this sets us up for that.”

Northwest Nazarene began the week in third place in the GNAC, but was outscored 11-0 in its two games.

"We are beat up, missing some key guys (including Renatto Brito who was red carded Thursday at Simon Fraser), and they (WWU) were excellent tonight,” Crusader coach Coe Michaelson said.  “They hit everything they looked at and played well.”