Box ScoreFOREST GROVE – They took only five shots on the night, but Pacific made the most of the opportunities Thursday night as Pacific closed their non-conference season with a 3-1 women's soccer victory over Warner Pacific at Hanson Stadium.
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First half goals by
Kara Lankey (So., La Canada, Calif.) and
Kamryn Plechot (Sr., La Palma, Calif.) accounted for two of the team's three first half shots, but set the pace a winning night as the Boxers closed out their non-conference schedule with a 3-1-0 record.
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"It was not our best performance, but the girls did a good job of continuing to work and scrap and fight and defend their home turf," said Pacific head coach
Morgan Joseph. "They were able to put together some good sequences that resulted in some good goals. The non-conference schedule is all about learning about ourselves, learning about each other and how to play with each other and this was a good way to cap that off heading into conference."
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After the Knights (2-4-1) controlled momentum over the first 18 minutes of the match, Pacific succeeded in pushing enough to put points on the board. Lankey connected on her third goal of the season in the 26th minute, heading in a well-placed cross from between the circles by
Ashley Park-Hunt (So., Mililani, Hawaii). Plechot sent the Boxers into halftime with a 2-0 lead when she headed in her second goal of the year off of
Lucy Almao's (So., Orange County, Calif.) corner kick.
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"We started to get a little momentum towards the end of the first half," Joseph said. "Kara's goal was a scrappy goal. She was in the right place at the right time, which is what you want your strikers to be doing. That started to build more momentum for us, created some opportunities and created the corner kick that gave us the goal at the end of the half."
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Warner Pacific continued to push offensively in the second half and eventually got Pacific defense to crack as the Boxers mishandled a ball for an own goal in the 61st minute. The miscue seemed to shock the Pacific defense, who allowed just two more Knights' shots the rest of the contest. Their best chance for another score came in the 81st minute when Staci Tatum launched a rocket from 30 yards that flew right to the hands of Pacific goalie
Kristina Morris (So., Molalla, Ore.).
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Park-Hunt tallied an insurance goal for the Boxers in the 78th minute, ending a play that developed initially from a corner kick with a shot from just on top of the 18-yard box. It was Park-Hunt's first goal of the season.
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Warner Pacific out-shot Pacific 14-5, but Pacific owned a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks.Â
Megan Green (So., Albany, Ore.) earned her first win of the season in goal, making three saves while playing the first 45 minutes of the match. Morris made four stops in the second half. Warner Pacific's Allie Holterman took the loss, making one save against the Boxers' five shots.
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Pacific's break between the non-conference and conference schedules will be brief as the Boxers host Linfield on Saturday at 7 p.m., to open the Northwest Conference season. Warner Pacific is also in action on Saturday, hosting Trinity Lutheran.
