Men’s Soccer: Boxers Hope to Secure First Winning NWC Season Since 1999

Pacific is 8-4-1 overall and 5-4-1 in NWC play.

Photo courtesy: Pacific University

FOREST GROVE - With their final, and longest, road trip of the season behind them, the Pacific men's soccer team will finish up their season with three matches at home. The finish begins with a Sunday afternoon match-up against George Fox.

WHITWORTH 4, PACIFIC 0:

Whitworth scored four goals in the first half to exact revenge on Pacific Saturday, as the Pirates posted a 4-0 victory at the Whitworth Soccer Field. The first half flurry stunned the defensive-minded Pacific squad, with the Pirates outshooting the Boxers 21-14. Matt Friesen opened scoring in the 19th minute, then added an assist when Niko Varlamos scored on his pass in the 26th minute.

Curtis Flournoy made it 3-0 just six minutes later, scoring off an assist by Varlamos. Ryan Powers added the final strike in the 41st minute, connecting off a long pass from Ali Seyedali. Pacific goalie Jory Shene (Sr., Molalla, Ore.) made four saves in 76 minutes of work. Kevin Bostock made one save in 74 minutes of action.

WHITMAN 3, PACIFIC 2:

Pacific rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to challenge Whitman, but could not overcome the Missionaries in a 3-2 loss Sunday at the Whitman Athletic Field. John Rue opened scoring for Whitman in the 13th minute with the only first half goal, beating Pacific goalie Jory Shene in the box off of Kevin Sigley's pass.

Marc Nabelek made it a 2-0 lead in the 62nd minute, scoring off a Brett Rawson assist. Danny Williams (So., Eugene, Ore.) cut the lead in half just a minute later, scoring off of Robin Grossman's (Jr., Taos, N.M.) assist. Craig Yuen stunted the run, however, by connecting on a Whitman penalty kick in the 68th minute. Derek Atta (Sr., Aiea, Hawaii) narrowed the advantage in the 74th minute, again taking a feed from Grossman to the net. Whitman outshot Pacific 20-6 for the match. Shene made six saves in the loss.

SCOUTING GEORGE FOX:

The struggling Bruins enter the week in seventh place with a 2-7-1 conference record and are 6-7-2 overall. George Fox has dropped their last three matches and lost their only match last week, a 3-2 overtime heartbreaker to Pacific Lutheran. Garrett Blizzard and Kyle Story both scored in the final 28 minutes to come back from a 2-0 deficit before Mike Ferguson scored eight minutes into overtime for the golden goal.

Matt Gurlides leads the George Fox offense with six goals. Blizzard currently has five assists. Starting goalkeeper Jake Maguire has a 1.65 goals against average, allowing 19 goals in 1,038 minutes. George Fox leads the all-time series 17-15-2. In the team's first meeting of the season, 9/30/06 in Newberg, the Bruins saw a last second scoring attempt by Gurlides waived off by the final horn as the two teams fought to a 0-0 tie. It was the Boxers' only overtime match and tie game of the season.

A FIRST PLACE JINX?:

Ever since Pacific took their short command of first place in the Northwest Conference standings after beating Linfield on Oct. 11th, the Boxers have found themselves shutdown. Since that time, Pacific has lost three straight games and have been outscored 9-3.

STILL AMONG THE SCORING LEADERS:

Despite going scoreless in the last three matches, Matt McDonough (Sr., Fairbanks, Alaska) continues to rank among the conference's top scoring threats. McDonough's nine goals ties him for second with Linfield's Mike Grabast. Mike Ferguson of PLU leads the league with 11. The nine strikes ties McDonough for fifth best on Pacific's single season scoring list with Wayne Waier (1997), Ean Lensch (1994) and Steve Baskay (1988). In addition, McDonough ranks among the conference's top-five in points, points per game and goals per game.

WORKING HIS WAY UP:

Thanks to his seventh goal of the season in Sunday's loss to Whitman, Danny Williams has worked his way into the conference's top-10 in scoring. Williams surpassed his total goals from last season with the strike. He now ranks sixth in the conference in goals and in goals per game.

WINNING SEASON STILL WITHIN REACH:

While Pacific has assured themselves of no worse than a .500 record, the Boxers want a winning mark for the 2006 campaign. The Boxers need just one more win to insure that winning mark, which would be the team's first winning season since the 1999 season. Two more victories would also insure the Boxers their first winning NWC record since the 1999 season. Pacific finished 10-8-2 overall that season with an 8-7-0 conference mark.

SCORING NO LONGER AN ISSUE:

Last season, Pacific amassed just 15 goals, the fewest in the history of the program. While the Boxers have not been an offensive powerhouse, they have put their share of balls into the net. Pacific has 21 goals on the season, six better than the lowly 2005 mark. They have also kept pace with the scoring of their opponents, who have also scored 21 against Pacific. The Boxers' offense has kept pace despite being outshot 245-134 for the season and being outshot 110-61 in shots on goal.

IRON MEN:

With a lineup of veterans, the Boxers are making sure that those longtime players are seeing as much action as possible. A total of eight players have played in all 14 matches, and five of them have started every match. In addition, a total of seven players have seen over 1,000 minutes of action. Led by 1,257 minutes for defender Kyle Chown (Sr., Eugene, Ore.).

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