• FINAL STATS   |   • VIDEO: Sophia  Chilczuk

SEATTLE – Sophia Chilczuk has been told that she looks like a former Seattle Pacific standout. Thursday's breakout performance will inevitably draw comparisons to the playing prowess of the forward who wore the same No. 13 jersey as the Falcons freshman.
 
Chilczuk factored into all three goals for SPU, including a golden goal with 32 seconds left in the final overtime of Thursday's 3-2 women's soccer victory over Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Central Washington at Interbay Stadium.
 
The Falcons applied constant offensive pressure during the two, 10-minute overtime sessions with nine shots during that span. They finally found the back of the net at 109:28 when Claire Neder's pass found Chilczuk on the left side for a shot that snuck between the goalkeeper and the post to end the game.


 
Chilczuk inherited the No. 13 jersey from Hannah Huesers, who completed her career last year ranked second among all-time SPU scorers with 48 career goals. Huesers was the GNAC goals leader in each of her final three seasons, scoring 15 in 2014, 14 in 2015 and 13 in 2016.
 
"They always say I look like her with my hair and how tall I am," Chilczuk said of her physical resemblance to Huesers.
 
Arby Busey coached both of them and is thrilled to see the offensive output continue from that jersey.
 
"It's a shirt that's been pretty good to us. There's times where Sophia looks very similar to the former No. 13. She has some other unique qualities to her that are nice. It's great to get some goals out of the 13 shirt again."
 
Thursday's goals were the third and fourth of the season for the product of Kentridge High School, just south of Seattle. Chilczuk ranks second on the team with 10 points, a figure that includes two assists.
 
"Sophia has been really, really good this year so it was great to see her rewarded with a couple goals tonight," Busey said. "She had a great opportunity early in the game that hit the post and bounced out. She had a lot of opportunities tonight and got two huge ones for us as we go in the stretch run."
 
Chilczuk put three of her six shots directly on goal. Two went in and the third nearly ended the game in the third minute of overtime. She dribbled into the right side of the box for a one-on-one situation with goalkeeper Emily Holt. Chilczuk slipped a low shot that was slowed down by Holt, who was able to turn and race to the ball just before it trickled across the goal line.
 
An effort in the 20th minute by Chilczuk, from the right side of the box, caromed off the left post.
 
CWU got on the scoreboard first with a brilliant shot by KK Wallace at 29:43. She received a pass on the left side of the box and lofted a shot into the upper right corner for her first goal of the season.

 

The Falcons rallied from the 1-0 halftime deficit with two second-half scores. Chilczuk got a go-ahead goal in the 82nd minute off a pass from Kasey Reeve, who tallied the initial SPU score at 53:41 from her feed.
 
Central's Makenzie Nolte forced overtime on a well-placed shot with 2:21 left in regulation, forging a 2-2 tie. She broke free with the ball into the right side of the box and directed a 15-yard shot just inside the right post at 87:39. That was the seventh goal of the season for Nolte, who has accounted for half of the Wildcat's 14 goals this season.
 
"Just the typical GNAC barn-burner tonight. It was one that got wide open pretty fast and both teams were creating opportunities," Busey said. "We did a really good job of creating some quality opportunities tonight, probably better than we have at any point this season.
 
"Credit to their goalkeeper who was fantastic. She put herself in the right spots and made life very difficult for us in terms of scoring. But we created a lot of really good chances tonight."
 
Central (1-8-3) dropped to 0-5-2 in league play despite a nine-save performance from Holt.
 
The Wildcats were outshot 23-13 and had a 9-3 deficit during the extra sessions, requiring five saves from Holt after regulation. Three of those came in one flurry after CWU's Kelsey Bechtholdt was red carded as the last defender fouling to stop a breakaway. SPU's Simone Herzberg stepped to the penalty spot and had her shot blocked by Holt, who proceeded to deny two quick follow-up attempts by the senior midfielder.
 
Senior goalkeeper Molly Stinson registered five saves for the Falcons (7-5-0), who improved their GNAC record to 5-3-0.
 
The SPU women travel to Lacey, Wash. on Saturday for their final regular-season road game. They meet Saint Martin's at SMU Soccer Field for a 1 p.m. contest. The Falcons were 4-1 home victors on Sept. 21 in this season's first meeting behind two-goal games from Herzberg and Julia DeVere.
 
"We've got to fill the tanks up again because we certainly spent everything that we had tonight to get this result," Busey said. "Saturday becomes just as important as this one was in terms of going on the road for the last time and trying to get a result down there at a place that's been tough to get results.
 
"Watching film, Saint Martin's has improved quite a bit since the last time we played them. They're going to give us everything we can handle on Saturday so we'll try to get our bodies right, head down to Lacy and take our chances and try to get a result."
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash
 
at Seattle Pacific 3, Central Washington 2 (2ot)
 
Scoring – 1, CWU, KK Wallace (Jordan Engman), 29:43; 2, SPU, Kasey Reeve (Sophia Chilczuk), 53:41; 3, SPU, Chilczuk (Reeve), 81:43; 4, CWU, Mackenzie Nolte, 87:38; 5, SPU, Chilczuk (Claire Neder), 109:28.
 
                       1   2  OT  OT--  TOTAL
Central Washington     1   1   0   0 --    2
Seattle Pacific        0   2   0   1 --    3
 
Shots – CWU 13, SPU 23.
Shots on goal – CWU 7, SPU 12.
Saves – CWU 9 (Emily Holt), SPU 5 (Molly Stinson).
Corner kicks – CWU 5, SPU 6.
Fouls – CWU 11, SPU 7.
Offsides – CWU 2, SPU 7.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 7-5-0, 5-3-0 GNAC
Central Washington 1-8-3, 0-5-2 GNAC
 
 
Next SPU Women's Soccer Game
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Saturday, Oct. 14, 1:00 p.m. PDT
SMU Soccer Field / Lacey, Wash.