Box Score WAIPAHU, Hawaii – Neither a long flight to Hawaii nor rainy weather could stop the Crusaders from scoring their first victory of the season.
After seeing their season-opener rained out one day earlier, the Northwest Nazarene men's soccer team hit the pitch ready to roll and scored a 1-0 nonconference victory over Hawaii-Hilo on Friday afternoon.
"It's always nice to get the first one out of the way," said NNU head men's soccer coach
Coe Michaelson. "While there's a lot that we can improve upon, we definitely deserved to win today and were unfortunate not to score more."
Freshman
Alex Mitrovic scored the only goal that matter for the Crusaders (1-0), heading home the lone goal of the game with 12 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the opening half.
Jaime Verdin and
Jan Ilskens assisted on the goal for NNU, who made that lone score hold up by dominating play and outshooting the Vulcans (0-1), 11-2, in the contest.
"I think the key was our dominance in possession and the quality of our defending," Michaelson said. "We didn't have a lot to do, but we did what we needed to do well."
That allowed
Ryan Foo to record his first shutout of the season, without having to make a save.
The Crusader continue their season-opening road trip in Hawaii by playing Hawaii Pacific on Saturday at 10 p.m. Mountain Time.