Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — The Crusaders played patient, attacked when they could, and clamped down on the potent offense of second-ranked Simon Fraser.

The perfect game-plan provided a near-perfect result for the Northwest Nazarene men's soccer team, which earned a crucial point in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a 2-2 draw with the visiting Clan on Thursday at Finkbeiner Park on the NNU campus.

"The guys left everything on the field tonight, it was awesome," NNU head coach Joel DeLass said.

"Coming off a good result on the road last week, it's nice to follow that up," he added as NNU scored an overtime win at St. Martin's last Thursday and a scoreless draw on Saturday at Seattle Pacific.

"It would have been nice to get a win tonight, but we'll take it."

The third straight overtime contest for the Crusaders (4-3-3 overall, 1-1-2 GNAC) was a battle all night thanks to a patient, defensive posture by NNU against a Simon Fraser team that came in unbeaten and untied, and having outscored foes 21-5.

A virtually perfect game-plan that fended off the Clan (8-0-1, 3-0-1) until the 33^rd minute when a bad break put the first goal on the board.
 

Attempting to clear the ball after a Simon Fraser corner kick, instead, the Crusaders scored on their own goal, spotting the nation's second-ranked team a 1-0 advantage.

That ignited the Crusaders intensity, though, and they pushed forward looking for the equalizer, which came with 6:13 left until halftime when Logan Wood booted home a rebound after a long free kick by teammate Linus Mansson.

The score didn't stay knotted at 1-1 for long as the dangerous Clan scored just 2:20 into the second half, putting NNU back into comeback mode.

Continuing to make the most of their chances, the Crusaders cashed in on a Mansson corner kick as Rene Duevel headed a loose ball off the crossbar and in, tying it 2-2 with 28:09 remaining in regulation.

From there, both teams traded chances at the win, but neither converted.

"We tried to keep things compact and tight and tried to eliminate their speed and their ability on the dribble running against our back line," DeLass said. "The guys did well with that tonight."

Well enough for the Crusaders to earn one point in the GNAC standings, moving them into a tie for second place early in the league race as NNU prepares to host Western Washington on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Ryan Foo made seven saves in goal in the draw for NNU on Thursday.