Bruins Blistered by Lutes in Final Home Game

(NEWBERG, Ore.) - Spoiling the final home game of the season for the George Fox University Bruins, the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes exploded for six second-half goals to break open a relatively-tight game and walk off with a 8-1 win in a Northwest Conference men’s soccer match Sunday afternoon here at the Austin Sports Complex.

The Bruins actually controlled play through the first 30 minutes, manufacturing seven shots to five for the Lutes, who were coming off a heart-breaking 2-1 double-overtime loss the day before at Pacific University that had knocked them out of first place in the conference. However, once the Lutes got rolling, there was little the Bruins could do to slow them down.

The Lutes got on the board in the 31st minute when Spencer Augustin took a through ball from Brenden Cohen and beat George Fox keeper Elliott Davis one-on-one with a score from five yards out. It was his fourth goal of the season. Augustin assisted on the second PLU goal three minutes later, feeding Chad Kearns, the conference’s leading scorer, for his 15th goal from 10 yards out into a net that opened up when Davis came out to challenge Augustin.

Surafel Wodajo opened things up for PLU early in the second half, scoring twice in the space of 75 seconds to make it 4-0 in the 54th minute. His first score came from eight yards out inside the left post following a through ball from Augustin, and his second of the game and fifth of the season came on a putback following a deflected shot by Augustin.

Wodajo assisted on Derek Johnson’s first goal of the season in the 67th minute, and the Lutes scored their final three goals on breakaways by Mohamed Bouzakraft in the 71st minute, Johnson again in the 73rd,and Lucas McCallum in the 76th. Bouzakraft and Johnson scored unassisted, while Johnson fed McCallum for his fifth goal of the year.

George Fox salvaged something from the game when the Bruins finally picked up their first goal at home this season and first on its new soccer pitch. Joseph Tiede did the honors when he took a short pass from Isaac Widdicombe just inside the right corner of the penalty box and hooked it 15 yards into the upper left corner of the net in the 88th minute.

The Lutes out-shot the Bruins 25-12 overall and 17-4 in shots on goal, and had a 3-1 edge in corner kicks. Brian Kostol had three saves for PLU in 55 minutes before Kit Deming finished up with no saves. Davis made seven stops in 58 minutes for the Bruins, and Kasey Haugan had two saves in 32 minutes.

A total of 50 players participated in the game, 26 for PLU and 24 for George Fox. Playing their final home game for the Bruins were seniors Connor Campbell, and David Rickey, who were honored in pre-game ceremonies for their four-year careers.

PLU remained in the running for the conference title by improving to 10-7-1 overall and 9-4 in the league. George Fox fell to 0-14-2 overall and 0-12-1 in the NWC. The Bruins have now gone a record 19 games in a row, counting their final three games of the 2009 season, without a win (0-17-2).

NEXT: George Fox ends its season Saturday at league-leading Pacific, with the game time listed at 1:30 p.m. instead of the usual 2:30 p.m. ... Pacific Lutheran visits the University of Puget Sound Saturday at 2:30 p.m., and can still take the conference with a win if the Bruins can tie or win their game against the Boxers.

Source George Fox University gfubruins.com