Oct. 10, 2006

MEN’S SOCCER: Big Matches Loom Against Puget Sound, Pacific

THIS WEEK: PLU at Puget Sound, Wednesday, 3:30 p.m.; PLU at Pacific, Sunday, 2:30 p.m.

LUTES VERSUS LOGGERS IN BIG NWC MATCH: Pacific Lutheran faces a key Northwest Conference match on Wednesday when it visits the University of Puget Sound. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Baker Stadium. The Loggers have won three straight matches between the rivals, including 1-0 and 2-0 victories last year. The last PLU win in the series came by a 2-1 score on Sept. 23, 2004. Both the Lutes and Loggers are among a group of five teams that are battling for Northwest Conference supremacy. Defending conference championship Whitworth currently leads the NWC with 14 points from a 4-1-2 record, with Puget Sound and Pacific tied with 13 points and PLU one back of that. Linfield has 11 points. However, PLU (4-2-0 in conference) and UPS (4-1-1 in conference) have both played only six matches, so a win by either of these teams on Wednesday would move it into the top spot in the conference at this stage of the season.

ABOUT THE LOGGERS: Puget Sound started the season with six straight wins, and since that time has a tie, a win and a loss for a 7-1-1 overall record. The Loggers have scored 16 goals in those nine matches, led by Byron Conforti with five goals. Mark Conrad has three assists and both Conforti and Jason Sisneros have a pair of assists. Where the Loggers have been particularly strong is on defense where they have allowed only three goals in nine matches. Pete Van Sant has played every minute in goal for UPS and has an outstanding 0.33 goals against average.

IT DOESN’T GET ANY EASIER: The Lutes won’t be able to take the rest of the week off after playing Puget Sound. In fact, PLU will have a very difficult test ahead on Sunday when it faces the Pacific Boxers in Forest Grove, Ore. The Boxers, as mentioned earlier, are currently tied for second in the conference with 13 points on a 4-2-1 record, and they are coming off of a 1-0 win at Puget Sound last Sunday. Pacific Lutheran defeated Pacific by a 3-0 earlier this season and the Boxers are hoping to extract a measure of revenge against the Lutes. Pacific’s Matt McDonough is among the conference leaders with eight goals, and he also leads the Boxers with three assists. Goalkeeper Jory Shene has been outstanding as of late, earning Northwest Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors twice in the last three weeks. He did not allow a goal and made six saves in 163 minutes of action last week.

LAST WEEK: Pacific Lutheran split a pair of Northwest Conference home matches last weekend, losing 2-1 to Linfield on Saturday and winning 5-0 against Willamette on Sunday. PLU trailed Linfield 2-0 when forward Mattis Ostvold (Kirkenaer, Norway / Høgskolen i Hedmark) scored with 5 ½ minutes remaining to pull the Lutes to within a goal, but the Wildcats withstood the Lutes’ final offensive pressure to secure the win. The Willamette game was quite different as PLU scored twice in the first seven minutes. Freshman defender Derek MacLean (Seattle, Wash. / Kennedy HS) scored the first goal in the sixth minute from a free kick situation, and freshman forward Baard Asker (Oslo, Norway / Wang), who assisted on MacLean’s goal, added the second tally 37 seconds later. Junior forward Adam Ladage (Washougal, Wash. / Washougal HS) came off the bench to score his first PLU goal in the 40th minute, and junior forward Mike Ferguson (Sumner, Wash. / Auburn Riverside HS) added the final two tallies in the second half.

LUTES BY THE NUMBERS: With his two goals on Sunday, Mike Ferguson moved ahead of Baard Asker for the PLU goal-scoring lead with eight. Asker has seven goals this season. Sophomore forward Derek Karamatic (Gig Harbor, Wash. / Gig Harbor HS), who just returned from an injury that kept him out of five matches, continues to lead the team with four assists. In all, nine different players have scored goals and 10 different players have recorded assists. The Lutes have scored a total of 25 goals while allowing 11 in their 11 matches this season. Goalkeeper Andrew Croft (Kenmore, Wash. / Inglemoor HS) has a 1.04 goals against average this season.

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