Boxscore and Stats

NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene's Sarah Staropoli scored twice in the first-half and Lacey Thompson collected the game winner in the 100th minute as the Crusaders defeated Western Oregon University 3-2 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match on Thursday at the NNU Soccer Field.

"We definitely made it hard on ourselves today, giving up a goal early in each half," commented NNU head coach Jamie Lindvall.  "But it was a great display of heart and I was proud of our girls for keeping their composure and getting it done.  Sarah had a great goal on the free kick and Lacey had a great finish to win it for us."

 

Western Oregon (2-12-0, 1-9-0 GNAC) opened the scoring in just the third-minute on a goal by Kartina Kern.  Kern's shot from five-yards away finished inside the left post after Jill Peterson found Kern with her cross.

Staropoli then tied it at 1-1 at 10:19 on a low 30-yard shot inside the right post before making it 2-1 at 32:07, scoring from four yards after recovering a shot by Julianne Steele that was deflected by WOU keeper Brittney Rigtrup for one of her two saves.

 

WOU's Petersen scored in the opening minute of the second half from seven yards away after recovering a free kick by Rebecca Hoiland to tie the game at 2-2.

After Petersen tied it in the opening minute of the second half, the teams played 53 minutes of scoreless soccer until Autumn Yturbe and Kendra Courcy set up Thompson's game-winner.   Staropoli has three goals this season and Thompson now has two as the Crusaders improve to 5-9-0 overall and 3-7-0 in conference play.

Both teams took 12 shots in the contest. Tanya Zickefoose had seven saves for NNU in recording the victory.

The Crusaders will return to the pitch on Saturday afternoon, hosting Saint Martin's University at Noon.