PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College men's soccer played Whitworth University extremely tight for over 75 minutes, thanks to junior goalie
Declan Cloutier and one of their best team performances of the season.Â
THE BASICS
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Whitworth University 3, Lewis & Clark 0
(Lewis & Clark 0-18, Northwest Conference 0-14)
(Whitworth 10-6-2, NWC 8-4-2)Â
HOW IT HAPPENED
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Reigning Northwest Conference Player of the Year Cole Friesen gave the visitors the lead just past the 90-second mark, but Lewis & Clark would tighten up defensively from there and make the Pirates work extremely hard for the three points.Â
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First year
Sam London nearly tied the game in the 72
nd minute, when he sent a low shot towards the near post that forced a diving save from Whitworth goalie Aiden Chase.Â
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The visitors thought they had a golden chance to double their lead in the 74
th minute. After a 50/50 play in the box that eventually was changed to a penalty, Friesen stepped up looking for his 13
th goal of the season. Friesen sent a low shot to Cloutier's right that Cloutier got a piece of and the ball bounced up and hit the crossbar. Friesen followed his rebound and sent a point-blank shot from inside the six-yard box towards goal but Cloutier gobbled up the shot to deny Whitworth's all-time leading scorer twice in a matter of seconds.Â
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Whitworth managed to put some distance between the two teams with two goals in the final 15 minutes. Friesen headed home a Dominic Gusman corner kick at 76:01. Less than 10 minutes later, Frisen found Cole Crockett racing towards net and Crockett's left footed shot snuck under the bar for the final 3-0 score.Â
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Cloutier finished the game with four saves on seven shots in his third appearance (second start) of the season.Â
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Talen Haywood,
Ben Schwartz,
Aashir Walson and London each finished with one shot for Lewis & Clark.Â
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BY THE NUMBERS
- Lewis & Clark limited Whitworth to just seven shots on goal on their 22 attempts. The seven shots on goal are tied for the third-fewest shots on goal the Pioneers have allowed in conference play this season.Â
- Cloutier has now stopped a penalty shot in each of the past two seasons. He has stopped two out of the five penalty shots he's faced in his career.
- First year Alex Woods played six minutes off the bench in his return from an injury. He had missed the previous six games.Â
- Lewis & Clark has three penalty saves (Ben Tallent in 2022) on 13 attempts in three seasons.Â
- Friesen set the Whitworth program record for goals on his first goal of the contest. He has posted 40 goals in three seasonsÂ
WHO'S NEXTÂ
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Lewis & Clark will close out their home schedule, when they host George Fox University on Saturday at 11 a.m.