BELMONT, Calif. – Before his team's nonconference road match Thursday, Northwest Nazarene men's soccer coach Adam Pearce challenged them to be the aggressor.

After getting pushed around in a home loss to No. 17 Colorado Mesa last week, the Nighthawks came out roaring against Notre Dame de Namur in a 2-0 victory.

"I challenged them to start the game with energy and not be reactive to our opponent, but try and execute from kickoff," Pearce said. "We did that. The guys were up for it."

Jake Levine notched his first goal of the season in the third minute on an assist from Carlos Rodriguez-Diaz. NNU (2-2) even had a scoring opportunity earlier than that.

"We were all over them," Pearce said. "So, credit to the guys for being brave and putting it in the back of the net."

The game remained 1-0 until the 89th minute when Skyler Munroe found the back of the net on an assist from Levine.

It wasn't for lack of trying, though, as NNU finished with 17 shots including 12 on goal.

"Their goalkeeper, I give him credit. We created a ton of chances and they were good chances and quality strikes and he just better saves," Pearce said of Javier Santana. "He gave his team an opportunity to win, but we were resilient throughout the second half. That's a good team and that will turn out to be a good win for us.

"I'm definitely proud of our guys for being focused enough to compete."

Alex Nadermann made two saves in goal to earn the shutout victory.

NNU plays at Dominican University near San Francisco at 1 p.m. MDT on Saturday.