Seattle Pacific University men’s soccer returned from Western Washington University on Thursday, October 24, with a 2-1 loss.
Western Washington’s first goal was scored by their senior midfielder Adan Fernandez, his second goal of the season. During an open play, the shot landed directly into the lower right corner of the goal in the 12th minute of the first half. Judah Johnson, a fifth-year forward, responded quickly three minutes later, scoring his third goal of the season with an assist from sophomore defender Isaac Ketcham.
The second goal for the Vikings was scored off a penalty kick by Kaydin Wall, who is also a senior midfielder, in the 89th minute. With less than a minute left on the clock, the Falcons had no choice but to accept defeat.
Seattle Pacific faced Northwest Nazarene University for the first time this season on Saturday, Oct. 26. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. The scouting report noted NNU’s defensive strength and the Falcons struggled to score throughout most of the game.
Northwest Nazarene scored 15 minutes before the end of the first half. Seattle Pacific reacted with urgency to try to tie the score before halftime. As time ran out, the game entered halftime with NNU leading 1-0.
Reymundo Mendez, a fourth-year midfielder for SPU, commented on the first-half action.
“Going in we had a good game plan. We started a little slow, they got one [goal] on us out of two, three shots in the first half.” Mendez said. “Going into halftime it was a little rough but I feel like we played well, just missed a lot of chances.”
Northwest Nazarene’s defense tore apart SPU’s attacks and cut off their ability to score. Throughout the whole game, Seattle Pacific took 15 shots and eight corner kicks. Mendez stated the team just missed a lot of chances.
Seattle Pacific tied the game in the 55th minute. A beautiful cross from sophomore forward JJ Diaz on the right side led to an unchallenged header by Mendez for the goal.
After a 30-minute battle with back-to-back attempts to score, both teams’ defenses stayed persistent throughout the match. After a long match in the rain and cold the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Diego Pena-Salgado, a second-year forward, shares a thought.
“We really thought we had it in terms of [ball] possession and in terms of wanting it more than the other team. When the game started to go on, we realized that they were pressuring a little higher,” Pena-Salgado said. “It was a little harder to move the ball around, I think we should have had it.”
Seattle Pacific is tied with Northwestern Nazarene for third place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 3-2-2 conference record, but SPU falls short in the overall record, Nazarene having a 4-6-3 record and SPU a record of 6-4-3.
The men’s soccer head coach, Kevin Sakuda, hopes for a better outcome later in the season.
“[We continue having] good trainings, stack good performances on top of each other,” Sakuda said. “We will see [NNU] in a couple of weeks, and hopefully we’re a better version of who we were. ”
The Falcons are set to face NNU again on Thursday, Nov. 14. Until then, Seattle Pacific strives to improve for their second match against Simon Fraser University on Thursday, Oct. 31, at 4 p.m. at Interbay Soccer Stadium.
