Box Score
LACEY, Wash. – It has been a long and winding stretch of late October road games for the Seattle Pacific Falcons, but the drive home was a smooth one.
 
In the fourth straight road match over nine days, Julian White's goal with less than 12 minutes remaining lifted SPU to its second straight away win, 2-1 at Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer game on a soggy field Saturday afternoon.
 
It was the 100th career coaching victory for Seattle Pacific's Mark Collings. He is now 100-40-29 in his ninth season.
 
Sam Rucklos (Fr., Boise), like White (Jr., Redmond), scored his first goal of the year for SPU (6-5-5), which has now won four of the last six overall. Seattle Pacific, winless in its first six away, is now 4-3-4 in the GNAC.
 
It marked the seventh straight win for the Falcons in Lacey. They had posted their first road win of the season Thursday at Concordia (3-1).
 
Saint Martin's (2-11-1/1-8-1) is winless in eight games, losing the last five.
 
After nearly scoring himself, Stephen MacDonald effectively set up White's winner. Three minutes after returning to the game, and with the Falcons' attack stuck in neutral, MacDonald smashed a shot off the crossbar with White bundling in the rebound at 78:27. Those were the first and only shots by the visitors in the second half.
 
Until that point, the visitors had been largely on the defensive. Down 1-nil at half, the Saints equalized in the 61st minute and Cody Lang stopped a go-ahead attempt by Jake Zimmer 11 minutes later.
 
MacDonald (Sr., Phoenix, Az.) and Gabe Kellum (Jr., Rennes, France), the team's top two scorers, re-entered the match in the 76th minute and soon after the deadlock was broken.
 
A Kellum corner kick led to the game's first score, with Rucklos heading it home. It was Kellum's fourth assist.
 
Until then, Saint Martin's had fired four of the game's first six shots. Soon after, Kellum and MacDonald saw their first shift off the bench and the Falcons soon gained the upper hand, launching four shots, three of them on target. Moments before the goal, Rucklos had been denied by a save from Saints keeper Griffin Small.
 
A corner also produced the equalizer, Sebastian Navarro making it 1-1 on an assist from Christian Caro. Saint Martin's finished with a 12-9 edge in shots and 7-5 on corner kicks. Lang was credited with five saves. Small and Ian Fry combined for three stops.
 
SPU closes out the regular season by hosting GNAC leader Simon Fraser next Saturday. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Interbay Stadium. Six seniors to be honored beforehand.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016
SMU Soccer Field / Lacey, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 2, at Saint Martin's 1
 
Scoring – 1, SPU, Sam Rucklos (Gabe Kellum), 41:14; 2, SMU, Sebastian Navarro (Christian Caro), 60:38; 3, SPU, Julian White, 78:27.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 6-5-5, 4-3-4 GNAC
Saint Martin's 2-11-1, 1-7-1 GNAC
 
Next game
Seattle Pacific vs. Simon Fraser
Saturday, November 5, 7 p.m. PDT
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash.