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NAMPA, Idaho – A penalty kick by Sam Malloch early in the second half Saturday afternoon proved to be the difference as Seattle Pacific won its fourth consecutive game to close-out the season, 1-0, over Northwest Nazarene in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer game at NNU Soccer Field.
 
It was the Falcons' only clean sheet of the season and their first shutout in 26 games, dating back to Sept. 29, 2018. They allowed only five shots by the Nighthawks and goalkeeper Lars Helleren was required to make just two saves.
 
"We were really good defensively. They only had two shots on goal for the game," said SPU coach Mark Collings. "We did a really good job of putting them under pressure and limiting their opportunities. We got our chance early in the second half, but we probably should have had one or two before then because we got some good wing play and good service."
 
Fantastic Finish
SPU finishes the season at 7-9-1 and, by squaring its conference mark at 6-6-0, takes third place in the final GNAC standings. They were in last place three weeks ago before vaulting over four teams with the fantastic finish.
 
Collings was proud of the character his players displayed, rallying from a sluggish start to finish strong.
 
"After the slow start to the GNAC, season our guys could have hung their heads and just mailed it in and get ready for next year. Instead they chose to battle and use this as a springboard for next year. There's no better way to get ready for next season and reach our goals than to win some games. The guys did that and they deserve all the credit.
 
"Three of the four games we won down the stretch were on the road, which is a really difficult thing to do with the travel that we have in our conference."
 
The Falcons were 2-1 victors at Simon Fraser on Nov. 2, beat Saint Martin's 4-2 on Nov. 9 in Seattle and vanquished Montana State 4-1 in Billings on Thursday.
 
Northwest Nazarene, blanked for the third time in four outings, finished 7-11-0, 3-9-0 in league play.
 
Malloch Makes PK
Malloch stepped to the 12-yard spot barely two minutes after intermission. A cross from Titus Grant flew through the box and was hit by the hand of NNU defender Brandon Parsio at the far post. Malloch calmly slotted his penalty kick low into the left corner as Nighthawks goalkeeper Alex Nadermann went the other direction. It was Malloch's second goal of the year.
 
"Titus was able to beat his guy and get service," Collings described. "Our guy went up for a header and it went over him, bounced down and hit off their guy's hand, which was extended away from the body. Malloch had a really nice finish on the penalty."
 
The score injected greater urgency into the hosts, who committed more resources to the attack yet soon found themselves scrambling. A deep throw to the top of the box set-up Grant for a drive from 18 yards that sailed just past the top right corner. Grant had scored twice in a 5-2 win over NNU at Interbay Stadium on Oct. 10.
 
Seattle Pacific, 5-0-1 when scoring first this season, finished the year with its longest win streak since September 2017.
 
Dynamic Defense
 

Helleren earned his clean sheet with two sliding stops in the final 18 minutes.
 
First, he combined with defender Ed Wiese to block and then cover Ty Iannone's try from 12 yards in the 73rd minute. With 10 minutes remaining, Helleren raced off his line to snuff Jake Levine's shot from the left side of the area.
 
SPU finished with a 9-5 advantage in shots. Grant, with nine goals, finished as the top scorer for the second season in a row.
 
A scrappy first half saw SPU finding difficulty connecting passes in the attacking third and rushing two scoring opportunities, including a volley by Alden Massey going high from short range and a first-time attempt by Grant from 15 yards going well wide. In the opening period the Falcons out-shot the Nighthawks, 5-1.
 
Lee Lone Leaver
Saturday marked the final career game for Puyallup, Wash. midfielder Trevor Lee, the squad's sole senior.
 
Everybody else is eligible to return.
 
"We have a lot of returning guys. Hopefully we can utilize all of these returners to have us start at a better rate next season," Collings said. "Certainly, we're not satisfied with our season and so we need to remain hungry and build off of this. This is just a beginning.
 
"We expect to win more than four games in a row. The expectation is to win a lot of games and they established that for themselves, they set the standard. It certainly makes for a winter and a spring where we have their attention and, more importantly, they have established a belief within themselves as a team as to what they can do. That's what we'll look to build on with this group."
 
NCAA MEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, November 16, 2019
NNU Soccer Field / Nampa, Idaho
 
Seattle Pacific 1, at Northwest Nazarene 0
 
Scoring – 1, Sam Malloch (penalty kick) 47:36.
 
                        1   2  --  TOTAL
Seattle Pacific         0   1  --    1
Northwest Nazarene      0   0  --    0
 
Shots – SPU 9, NNU 5.
Shots on goal -- SPU 5, NNU 2.
Saves –SPU 2 (Lars Helleren), NNU 4 (Alex Nadermann).
Corner Kicks – SPU 2, NNU 7.
Fouls – SPU 6, NNU 15.
Offsides – SPU 1, NNU 0.
 
Cautions –Landon Butler, NNU, 37:27; Musa Ali, SPU, 48:01; Ed Wiese, SPU, 64:34; Mario Vukic SPU, 76:59.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 7-9-1, 6-6-0 GNAC
Northwest Nazarene 7-11-0, 3-9-0 GNAC