• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

BILLINGS, Mont. – The 17th-ranked Seattle Pacific men dominated the shot count Thursday, but were unable to get one in the goal and settled for a 0-0 tie against Montana State Billings in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference soccer game at Yellowjacket Field.

The Falcons (8-2-2), who lost just once in their last 10 outings, saw their conference record move to 3-1-1. They had a goal by Blaine Carver (Soldotna, Ak.) in the 74th minute disallowed by an offside call.

"We just weren't quite sharp enough, weren't patient enough to put a ball in the back of the net," said SPU coach Mark Collings. "We thought we had one, but it got called offside."

SPU controlled the run of play and attempted 22 shots to only seven for the Yellowjackets. The Falcons had a 6-1 advantage in shots directly on goal.

Junior goalkeeper Zach Johnson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) needed just one save to register his third straight shutout. Johnson has blanked seven opponents this season, increasing his career shutout total to 12. He has not surrendered a goal in the last 307 minutes and saw his season goals against average drop to 0.89.

The defense has improved dramatically according to Collings.

"They've really solidified things and they've made it difficult for teams to really even get shots off. I'm happy with that. Our attack has to do their job now to take some of the pressure off. Anytime you can get a shutout says that you are doing something right, but we need to be better going forward."

Eoin Hurley made four of his six saves during the second half for MSUB, which was outshot 10-3 during that period.

The Yellowjackets (5-7-1) are 1-4-1 in GNAC play. They avoided the season sweep against SPU, which won this year's first meeting 2-0 on Sept. 17 in Seattle.

Collings hopes his Falcons won't regret Thursday's result.

"Our goal was to not have there be any excuses at the end of the season. By not getting the job done today, this is certainly one we could potentially look back on and say that is was one that got away."

The Falcons conclude their current eight-game road trip in Nampa, Idaho on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game against Northwest Nazarene.


NCAA MEN'S SOCCER
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Yellowjacket Field/Billings, Mont.

(#17) Seattle Pacific 0, at Montana State Billings 0

Scoring – None.

Shots – SPU 22, MSUB 7.
Saves – SPU 1 (Zach Johnson), MSUB 6 (Eoin Hurley).
Corner kicks – SPU 6, MSUB 3.
Fouls – SPU 10, MSUB 13.
Offside – SPU 7, MSUB 3.
Ejections -- None.

Records
Seattle Pacific 8-2-2,  3-1-1 GNAC
Montana State Billings 5-7-1,  1-4-1 GNAC

Next Game
(#17) Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene
Saturday, Oct. 15; Nampa, Idaho, 2:00 PDT