October 11, 2008
SEATTLE --
Meredith Teague registered her third multiple-goal game of the season with a pair of scores Saturday that led seventh-ranked Seattle Pacific to a 4-1 victory over Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's soccer game at Interbay Stadium.
Sophomore
Amanda Johnson (Duvall, Wash./Cedarcrest) added her sixth goal of the year and junior
Jocelyn Charette (Lakewood, Wash./Curtis) tallied her fourth for the Falcons.
Teague, a product of Bellevue Christian (Wash.) High School, netted her team-leading sixth and seventh goals during the first half as the Falcons dominated Saint Martin's from start to finish. The senior midfielder also tallied two-goals in games against Dixie State (Sept. 15) and Notre Dame de Namur (Sept. 11).
After the game, sixth-year SPU coach
Chuck Sekyra had nothing but praise for Teague, who has already tied her entire seven-goal total from last season.
“Meredith just continues to create opportunity after opportunity and be hard to stop. She just reads the game so well, she gets herself in great spots and then of course she finishes. She is a fun player to watch. She just plays that position so well.”
The victory helped SPU (11-1-1) improve to 5-1 in conference play and set up a showdown Thursday, Oct. 16 against first-place Western Washington, which moved to 6-0 in GNAC action with a 5-0 rout of Northwest Nazarene on Saturday. Kick-off for the SPU-WWU clash is 7 p.m. at Interbay Stadium.
The 13th-ranked Vikings dealt SPU its only defeat, a 1-0 setback on Sept. 20 in Bellingham.
Since their lone loss, the Falcons have won five consecutive games, outscoring opponents by a combined 15-1 margin during that span. The Saint Martin's goal snapped the Falcons streak of holding opponents without a goal for 488 minutes.
“They had two good looks and one slipped through. It's going to happen,” Sekyra said. “We've been solid and I'm very proud of our defense.”
Saint Martin's fell to 4-7-1 with Saturday's loss and 2-3-1 in conference games.
Johnson's tally came early in the second half. Seattle Pacific actually put six balls into the net, but three goals were nullified by offside calls.
“I love how we came out, I really did,” exclaimed Sekyra. “We played great possession soccer. I think we lead the nation again in having goals called back, but we created a lot of chances tonight and I really like how we played. I'm really proud of this team and we continue to grow each game.”
Junior forward
Kayla Stiegemeier (Rathdrum, Idaho/Lakewood) started the first goal-scoring play. She sent the ball toward the left corner where senior midfielder
Shannon Oakes (Boise Idaho/Boise) caught up with it just before it would have gone over the goal line. Oakes crossed it into the box, and Charette redirected it to Teague, who put it from just in front of the goalmouth at 10:06.
Senior defender
Katie Taylor (Vancouver, Wash./Columbia River) set up Teague's second goal. Playing on the left side, Taylor sent a well-placed target ball into the box, where Teague and Saints goalkeeper Ashley Engel both came charging for it. Teague got there an instant ahead of Engel, worked around her, took it toward a now wide-open goal and tapped it in at 27:29.
Engel kept the Saints in the game with eight saves. Her SPU counterpart, junior Jesslyn Rahm (Eugene, Ore./South Eugene), was far less busy and needed to make only one save. The Falcons outshot SMU 14-1 in the first half.
Seattle Pacific made it 3-0 at the 50:13 mark. The ball went into traffic in the Saints penalty area, and Stiegemeier sent it across the six-yard box to Johnson. From the top left corner of the six, Johnson launched it into the upper right corner.
Jill Jensen spoiled what would have been Seattle Pacific's fifth straight shutout when she came into possession of the ball just over midfield on a counterattack. Jensen dribbled the ball all the way into the box, going one on one against Rahm, who had come out to cut down the angle. Jensen capped the long run with a 10-yard strike at 52:54.
Charette restored the three-goal margin with a shot from six yards away to the left of the goal with just 14 seconds left in the game.
“That's the second time where we put a ball in at the end of a game,” said Sekyra. “It shows that we are taking advantage of every second we have to play together.”
Just a few minutes prior to Charette's goal, Teague had a chance for the hat trick when she broke into the box one on one against Saints goalkeeper Engel. But with Teague inside the six, Engel made a sliding save at the last instant.
Seattle Pacific outshot Saint Martin's by a dominating 25-6 margin. That wasn't the Falcons' highest shot total of the season however. They had 28 in a 3-2 overtime victory against Cal State Dominguez Hills.
NCAA Women's Soccer
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Interbay Stadium; Seattle, Wash.
(#7) Seattle Pacific 4, Saint Martin's 1
Scoring -- 1, SPU,
Meredith Teague (
Jocelyn Charette,
Shannon Oakes), 10:05. 2, SPU,
Meredith Teague (
Katie Taylor), 27:29. 3, SPU,
Amanda Johnson (
Kayla Stiegemeier), 50:13. 4, SMU, Jill Jensen (unassisted), 52:53. 5,
Jocelyn Charette (
Katie Taylor), 89:46.
Shots – SMU 6, SPU 25.
Saves – SMU 8 (Ashley Engel), SPU 1 (Jesslyn Rahm).
Corner kicks – SMU 1, SPU 8.
Fouls – SMU 10, SPU 7.
Offsides – SMU 0, SPU 3.
Attendance -- 341.
Records --
Seattle Pacific 11-1-1, 5-1-0 GNAC
Saint Martin's 4-7-1, 2-3-1 GNAC
