Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho — It turned out to be a never-ending onslaught and a perfect tune-up for the biggest game of the season.

Fernando Alvarez scored on a penalty kick just 1 minute, 34 seconds into the game, opening the floodgates on a steady flow of Crusader offense as Northwest Nazarene rolled to a 7-0 win over Saint Martin's in Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer Thursday at Finkbeiner Park on the NNU campus.

"It's a great result for us," said NNU head men's soccer coach Coe Michaelson. "To get our offense clicking the way we were — I think 3 or 4 of those goals were third man in running, just one touch — just really good stuff all the way around.

"And to get the result — we needed the result, we knew we needed it and the guys responded and came out exactly the way they needed," NNU's coach added.
 

The seven goals outburst was the most in the Crusaders' NCAA history. The single-game record for goals scored by an NNU men's soccer team is 13, which the then NAIA-Crusaders accomplished in 1992 against Northwest.

A foul in the Saints goal-box in the opening moments of action led to Alvarez's first of three goals in the contest, as he booted home the penalty-kick chance, which proved to be the game-winner.

And it signaled the start of a never ending onslaught by NNU as Alvarez and Julio Castillo set by Erik Anderson, who scored his first of two goals with 17:56 gone, then Alvarez netted his second of the game with 22:16 left until halftime.

Comfortably in front, up 3-0 at the break, NNU (10-4-1 overall, 6-3-1 GNAC) didn't let up as Anderson scored 10 minutes into the second half, Ebu Camara scored 31 seconds later, Alvarez finished off his hat trick with 12:58 gone in the final session and Austin Thomas capped the Crusader onslaught with his second collegiate goal with 9:23 left to play.

"It's obviously great to get a goal, but at the end of the day the team score is most important," Alvarez said, "it's all about the team."

And as a team, NNU now has tons of momentum heading into its biggest contest of the season as the Crusaders host No. 9-ranked Seattle Pacific at 3 p.m. on Saturday in a clash for the GNAC lead.

Ryan Foo finished with five saves in the win to earn his seventh shutout this season for NNU, which also got three assists from Alvarez, and an assist each from Anderson, Camara and Logan Wood in the victory.