LACEY, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene men's soccer hit the road for the final time in the regular season on Thursday, taking down Saint Martin's 3-1.
The Nighthawks improve to 4-3-3 in GNAC play with 15 points, moving up to third in the conference standings at the moment.
Despite a comfortable possession advantage and multiple more shots in the opening half, the Nighthawks went into the break deadlocked at 0-0 with the Saints.
It didn't take long in the second half for NNU to break through, however, as
Caleb Putney found
Jim Wagenaar in the box for a goal in the 50
th minute.
The Nighthawks added two more in a span of three minutes, starting with in the 72
nd minute when
Raoul Barragan picked up the ball near midfield and proceeded to dribble through the entire Saints defense and score without any help.
In the 75
th, it was
Johnny Ramirez who collected the rebound off his own shot and slotted home NNU's third goal of the game.
The Saints grabbed one back in the 85
th minute, but it was too little, too late as NNU earned the 3-1 victory.
NNU outpaced SMU 18-7 in total shots and 8-3 in shots on target, also earning seven corners to three for the Saints.
The Nighthawks will return to Nampa for their final two games of the regular season next week, hosting Seattle Pacific on Thursday night and Western Oregon for Senior Day on Saturday afternoon.
