SEATTLE –
Makena Rietz scored just 52 seconds into the game Saturday afternoon, igniting 23rd-ranked Seattle Pacific's season-high goal total for a 6-0 women's soccer home victory over Northwest Nazarene in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference clash at Interbay Stadium.
The Falcons' (5-0-0) overall record remained perfect and improved to 2-0-0 in GNAC play. They are undefeated during the calendar year, after going 8-0-1 in the spring.
Since conceding an initial score at Chico State in the Sept. 11 opener, the Falcons have reeled off 17 unanswered goals.
Goalkeepers
Riley Travis and
Kaitlynn Knocke combined for the SPU's fourth consecutive clean sheet Saturday, stretching their current scoreless streak to 413-minutes, 35-seconds. Travis started and earned three saves before giving way in the 67th minute to Knocke who stopped four shots.
MAKENA RIETZ INTERVIEW
Five different players scored for the Falcons. The only name appearing more than once in the scoring column was
AJ DePinto, who compiled two goals and an assist during the second half.
"To her credit, AJ does a great job of putting herself in the perfect place at the perfect time," said SPU coach
Arby Busey. "She just has a knack, and came up big again today."
AJ DePINTO FIRST GOAL
A reserve forward, DePinto took over the team's scoring lead as her season total increased to four goals. She produced the second straight multi-goal game for SPU, which got a brace from
Lauren Forster in Thursday's 5-0 home win over Montana State Billings. Rietz started the scoring in that game as well, netting an 18th-minute strike versus the Yellowjackets.
Saturday's first-minute goal by Rietz was her second score of the season. She redirected a low cross from the left side of the box by
Sophia Chilczuk, who tops the team with four assists.
"It sets the tone for the rest of the game,"
Arby Busey said of the early goal. "We had talked about trying to establish ourself early, and that's obviously a really good way to do exactly that. It's not something that you expect to do, but at the same time it doesn't come necessarily unexpected with that being the focus coming out of the locker room trying to get into the game as quickly as we can."
The Falcons added two more tallies before halftime, by
Sophie Beadle in the 28th minute and Forster in the 34th.
That figure doubled by the end of 90 minutes with DePinto playing a part in all three second-half goals. She assisted on a 72nd-minute strike by
Rylee Pierce before finding found the back of the net herself in the 77th and 85th minutes.
Along with the five different goal scorers, seven unique players provided assists on the SPU scores. In total, 26 Falcons saw action Saturday.
"We went deep today into the roster and showed our depth," said Busey. "We got some massive contributions from everybody that stepped foot on the field, which is awesome."
MAKENA RIETZ GOAL
NEXT GAME
The Seattle Pacific women hit the road for a pair of outings next week. They visit Western Oregon on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. and Saint Martin's on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
The next home game at Interbay Stadium is Oct. 7 at 4:30 p.m. versus Western Washington.
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
at (#23) Seattle Pacific 6, Northwest Nazarene 0
Scoring – 1, SPU,
Makena Rietz (
Sophia Chilczuk,
Chloe Gellhaus), 0:52; 2, SPU,
Sophie Beadle (unassisted), 27:14; 3, SPU,
Lauren Forster (Rietz), 33:46; 4, SPU,
Rylee Pierce (
AJ DePinto), 71:58; 5, SPU, DePinto (
Toni Miranda), 76:39; 6, SPU, DePinto (
Mia Mahaffey,
Sophie Gardner), 84:47.
1 2 -- TOTAL
Northwest Nazarene 0 0 -- 0
Seattle Pacific 3 3 -- 6
Shots – NNU 11, SPU 21.
Shots on Goal – NNU 7, SPU 12.
Saves – NNU 6 (Alexis Montoya 5, Ariel Kotte 1), SPU 7 (
Riley Travis 3,
Kaitlynn Knocke 4).
Corner Kicks – NNU 2, SPU 8.
Fouls – NNU 16, SPU 10.
Offsides – NNU 0, SPU 4.
Records
Northwest Nazarene 3-2-1, 1-1-0 GNAC
Seattle Pacific 5-0-0, 2-0-0 GNAC
Next SPU Women's Soccer Game
Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon
Thursday, September 30, 2:00 p.m.
WOU Soccer Field / Monmouth, Ore.
