• FINAL STATS

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Sophia Chilczuk tallied a golden goal early in the second overtime Saturday to give the Seattle Pacific women a 2-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory over Western Oregon at WOU Soccer Field.
 
Chilczuk got the game-winner at 102:30 on a five-yard tap-in from the right side after following up a teammate's near miss. Sydnee Smith was credited with an assist on the play after her long shot caromed off the right post and landed at Chilczuk's feet.
 
"Sophia had put in a ton of work so I was so happy for her to have a hand in deciding it because she had been so influential throughout the course of the game," said SPU coach Arby Busey. "We were playing on a really wet surface and we talked about tying to stay busy, trying to stay active in and around the goal because there is going to be a bounce or something that falls in there. She did a great job of that after it came back off the post."
 
That was the second goal of the season for the freshman forward from Kentridge High School, located just south of Seattle.
 
The Falcons (6-3-0) won for the fourth time in their last five outings. They rebounded from Thursday's 2-1 loss at Concordia (Ore.) to improve their GNAC record to 4-1-0.
 
The outcome was the fourth come-from-behind win of the year for SPU, which has conceded the opening goal in seven of the nine games.
 
"I guess that's just the way that it's going to go," Busey exclaimed. "We grew in confidence as the game went on and found some places where we could create opportunities.
 
"It's just one of those where you have to stay on course. It's hard because you start to have feelings that today might not be our day. But our kids did a great job of not letting that pollute their minds and just staying on task and continuing to go believing that the work that they were doing was going to pay off in the end."
 
Western Oregon (1-7-1) dropped to 0-4-1 in conference play.
 
WOU's Amber Whitmore scored the first goal in the 23rd minute. Alexie Morris fired a low shot that SPU goalkeeper Molly Stinson blocked near the right post. The deflection fell to the feet of Whitmore for the easy five-yard finish.
 
Both teams had two saves in the first half while the Falcons compiled a slim 7-5 shot edge in torrential rain. After halftime the rain subsided and SPU did not, turning up the pressure while effectively shutting down Western Oregon's offense.
 
The Wolves did not get off a shot after the 29th minute, when Whitmore hit the crossbar, and were outshot 16-0 during the second half and overtime.
 
"I'm not sure that we did a ton different. What we did is stay to what we had planned on doing and just did it better," Busey said of the second-half surge. "The weather calming down a little helped us out.
 
"The girls showed a great amount of resilience in terms of sticking to a gameplan that hadn't yet provided fruit."

 

The Falcons finally found the equalizer with 6:20 left in regulation. Kasey Reeve received a pass from Julia DeVere and scored on a behind-the-back flick at 83:40 that forced overtime. That was the team-leading sixth goal of the year for Reeve, a junior forward.
 
The first 10-minute overtime was scoreless and Chilczuk ended the game 2:30 into the second extra session.
 
Stinson registered two saves for the visitors and WOU's Caitlin Kastelic had three.
 
The SPU women have two more road games next week before playing at home again on Oct. 12. They visit top-ranked Western Washington on Thursday in Bellingham. Kick-off is 5 p.m. at Harrington Field.
 
"We'll look to build off this going into next week because certainly the stakes get a little big higher," said Busey. "Heading up to Bellingham is a tough place and that's going to be a big ask for us to go up there and compete with those guys. But we'll continue to work in practice and hopefully we can get points next weekend."
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, September 30, 2017
WOU Soccer Field / Monmouth, Ore.
 
Seattle Pacific 2, at Western Oregon 1 (ot)
 
Scoring – 1, WOU, Amber Whitmore (Alexie Morris), 22:17; 2, SPU, Kasey Reeve (Julia DeVere), 83:40; 3, SPU, Sophia Chilczuk (Sydnee Smith), 102:30.
 
                       1   2  OT  OT  --  TOTAL
Seattle Pacific        0   1   0   1  --    2
Western Oregon         1   0   0   0  --    1
 
Shots – SPU 23, WOU 5.
Shots on Goal – SPU 6, WOU 3.
Saves – SPU 2 (Molly Stinson), WOU 4 (Caitlin Kastelic).
Corner Kicks – SPU 10, WOU 4.
Fouls – SPU 20, WOU 11.
Offsides – SPU 0, WOU 2.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 6-3-0, 4-1-0 GNAC
Western Oregon 1-7-1, 0-4-1 GNAC
 
Next SPU Women's Soccer Game
Seattle Pacific at Western Washington
Thursday, Oct. 5, 5:00 p.m. PDT
Harrington Field / Bellingham, Wash.