• FINAL STATS

LACEY, Wash. – Sophomore forward Titus Grant notched an early goal and Lars Helleren provided a clean sheet Saturday for Seattle Pacific in a 1-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer shutout at Saint Martin's.
 
The Falcons (5-5-0) won their second straight road game, improving to 2-2-0 in league play. The Saints (3-7-0) finished a recent five game stretch at SMU Soccer Complex with a third consecutive loss to drop to 1-3-0 in GNAC games.
 
"It was a grind, a pretty even game overall," said SPU coach Mark Collings. "Saint Martin's played great. We probably should have finished a couple more chances in the first half to take a little bit of the zip out of the game, but we didn't.
 
"Fortunately we were able to keep a clean sheet, which is important. We've always prided ourselves on being good defensively so to have that rewarded today with a shutout is fantastic."
 
The win capped a four-game road trip for the Falcons, who have played eight of their first 10 games this season on the road. They were victorious in five of the last seven outings.
 
Grant put SPU on the scoreboard at 12:45, capitalizing on a misplay by SMU goalkeeper Griffin Small. SPU freshman Alden Massey served a looping pass into the box that Small was unable to collect near his goal, enabling Grant to distribute the loose ball in the bottom right corner of the net. That was Grant's fourth goal of the season, tying him for the team lead Massey.
 
"They were playing kind of a high line defensively. When teams are going to do that we need to soften them up with some balls over the top," Collings said "Alden played a ball over the top and Titus didn't give up on the play and was able to beat the goalkeeper to the ball and pass it into the goal."
 
In the 20th minute, the Saints had a good look when Alexis Lopez angled a header towards the goal. Helleren corraled it for his first of seven saves on the afternoon.
 
Helleren stopped another shot a few minutes later while SMU was causing chaos in the box. With the ball bouncing around, the SPU keeper managed to scoop up the ball off to his right to stall another attack.
 
A red-shirt freshman, Helleren registered the first shutout of his young collegiate career and the team's second this season. His personal record improved to 4-3-0 in seven starts between the posts.
 
"Lars was just solid. He just did his job, came out and got to crosses when he needed to," Collings said. "(Luke) Postma and Ed (Weise) were fantastic at center back and Nik (Reierson) and Jacob Bohl had their hands full as well.
 
"They did a really good job of containing their front group. Saint Martin's going forward is very good, so I thought our back four and goalkeeper did a great job."
 
Grant had another goal opportunity in the 34th minute when he was able to work around a couple of Saints defenders. His strike from 10 yards out was heading for the bottom right corner of the net before Small got a fingertip on the ball to deflect it to the right.
 
With the exception of the early goal, Small was able to stop all five other shots the Falcons directed on frame.
 
Saint Martin's had another opportunity on goal just before halftime. The box was crowded in the 40th minute when Helleren knocked a dangerous shot away despite colliding with a few players eight yards off his line.
 
The Saints had a 7-5 shot advantage during the first half. Grant and SPU teammate Travis Swallow accounted for two shots apiece and senior defender Chris Cole managing the other. Cole was the hero Thursday, scoring with 44 seconds remaining to cap a 3-2 victory at Montana State Billings.
 
The Falcons almost added to their lead in the 56th minute Saturday when senior Reid Baez headed the ball towards the top left corner, but the Saint's goalkeeper made a leaping save to his right.
 
Helleren denied a beautifully placed free kick by Brandon Madsen in the 70th minute. He dove to his right to record his fifth save.
 
Saint Martin's was forced to play down a man for the final 12 minutes after Oscar Aguilar was shown a red card at 78:02.
 
Benefiting from the man advantage, the Falcons defense held Saint Martin's to just one shot for the remainder of the game. That was an 83rd-minute try by Madsen that led to Helleren's final save.
 
The final shot count was even at 14-14 with the Saints owning a slim 7-6 edge in attempts directly on goal.
 
"It's massive," Collings exclaimed of the Falcons' two-game road sweep this week. "We still have our sights set on winning the league. To win the league you've got to win games on the road.
 
"To get two wins on the road is really big because both places that we did win teams are going to have a tough time playing in those environments."
 
The SPU men head home to host U-Mary from Bismarck, North Dakota on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. That is the first of six consecutive games at Interbay Stadium.
 
"In order for the games at home to mean something we had to do some work on the road and we've done that," Collings concluded. "We would like to have a couple more wins, but we're going to take what we have and go home and take our chances."
 
NCAA MEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018
SMU Soccer Complex / Lacey, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 1, at Saint Martin's 0
 
Scoring – 1, SPU, Titus Grant (unassisted), 12:45.
 
                          1   2  --  TOTAL
Seattle Pacific           1   0  --    1
Saint Martin's            0   0  --    0
 
Shots – SPU 14, SMU 14.
Shots on Goal – SPU 6, SMU 7.
Saves – SPU 7 (Lars Helleren), SMU 5 (Griffin Small).
Corner kicks – SPU 3, SMU 5.
Fouls – SPU 17, SMU 16.
Offsides – SPU 6, SMU 0.
Red cards – SMU, Oscar Aguilar, 78:02.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 5-5-0,  2-2-0 GNAC
Saint Martin's 3-7-0,  1-3-0 GNAC
 
 
Next SPU Men's Soccer Game
U-Mary at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Oct. 4, 7:00 p.m. PDT
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash.