Box Score

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Playing down a man for the middle 30 minutes of action, the Northwest Christian University men's soccer team gave up a goal early in the second half that would amount to all the scoring in a 1-0 loss to Linfield University on Thursday night.

It was a physical contest, highlighted by 20 fouls. Five total cards were thrown, including a straight red for physical play to Chris Longi in the 30th minute. That forced the Beacons into an 11-on-10 situation, and it would end up costing.

After out-shooting the Beacons 11-1 in the first half, the Wildcats wasted little time to apply more pressure after the intermission. Just a minute and a half into the second half, Michael Swain got open for a shot in the box, which clanged off the post. Geoff Kunita was there to scoop up the rebound, dinking in the open-netter for the goal.

Linfield (1-0) eventually had a red card of their own when a second caution was delivered to Ivan Colin in the 60th minute. This evened the stakes and the teams played wide open ten-man soccer for the final thirty minutes. Unfortunately for the Beacons they were unable to put anything together before the final whistle.

Nick Kratzke was peppered with nine shots on goal in the game as the Beacons were out-shot 17-3. He collected eight saves and kept his season Goals Against Average at 1.00. Travis Brown collected two of NCU's shots and had the lone shot-on-goal for the Beacons on the night. NCU's leading scorer Sam Eymann (pictured) took the other shot.

After the match, head coach Brett Bentley said, “Playing down a man for a long period of time was a major test for our guys tonight and overall I think they did a good job and fought hard, showing real commitment to each other. We did some good things tonight but definitely found some stuff that we will be able to work on before our next game.”

NCU (1-2) will be back in action on Sunday night when they play host to Walla Walla University for their home opener. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 pm.