Boxscore

NAMPA, Idaho - In their final tune-up before opening conference play, the Northwest Nazarene men's soccer team battled to a 1-1 draw against The University of Mary on Saturday afternoon at the NNU Soccer Field.

"The boys put a lot of effort into this game," commented NNU head coach Coe Michaelson.  "We played well and I'm very pleased.  Sometimes the results don't represent the total effort.  We hit the post twice and missed an open goal chance...but sometimes the game just does that.  Other than our lack of finishing a couple times today, we did enough in every area of the game.  It just didn't get into the back of the net."

 

Scoreless until deep into the match, the Marauders (0-2-2) struck first when Ryan Bucholz collected a cross from Aaron McElwee in the 79th-minute and sent a shot from the right side of the box across and just inside the far post past a diving NNU goalkeeper Zander Engeman.

 

NNU (3-0-1) evened the score and remains undefeated going into Great Northwest Athletic Conference play when Jose Oregon took a ball down the left side, beating two defenders and fired a shot from 12-yards out.  Oregon's shot deflected hard off a defenders foot and into the goal, just past UM goalkeeper Michael Frenzel.

 

In the overtime periods, the Crusaders forced the action, outshooting UM 7 to 4 and held a 20-14 shot advantage overall.  The Crusaders had six corner kicks against four for UM.

 

Frenzel finished with seven saves and Engeman had three.

 

The Crusaders will open GNAC play on Thursday at Seattle Pacific.  Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. PT.