Springfield, Ore. | The Warner Pacific University Men's Soccer team (16-2-1) continued its roll through the Cascade Collegiate Conference on Tuesday, where they defeated the Northwest University Eagles (10-7-2) in the first round of the CCC Tournament by a final score of 2-0.
With the #1 overall seed in the tournament, the Knights came into the tourney with a heavy burden on their shoulders to defend the seed they earned, and left no doubt about it in today's quarterfinals results. Touting the highest scoring offense in the conference, WPU head coach
Troy Ready knew his defensive unit would have to show up and show out in order to keep the Eagles at bay.
Knights' senior goalkeeper
Alexis Calderilla-Hurtado made Coach Ready's expectations come to life today, as he recorded his conference-leading 8
th shutout of the year with 5 saves against Northwest. Alexis improves to 11-1-1 on the year, showing exactly why he earned First Team All-Conference honors.
Scoring first today for the Knights was senior forward
Christian Bahena, who scored on a quick deflection off of an Eagles' defender to sneak one past Northwest's unsuspecting goalkeeper, Alexander Thiehofe. After multiple jukes, Bahena skirted past three separate Eagles before getting off his 44
th minute shot, which would prove to be the game-winner in today's contest.
A long and grueling 20 minutes later, Knights junior forward
Hunter Leach doubled Warner Pacific's lead off an absolute scorcher of a shot, which was just far enough away from Thiehofe to bounce off his fingertips and into the bottom left corner of the net. Both Bahena and Leach walk out of this match with unassisted goals, the first time WPU has had multiple goals unassisted since the preseason of the fall 2021 season.
After the conclusion of the afternoon men's soccer matches today, the CCC Tourney bracket has been updated to reflect Warner Pacific's next opponent to be the #4 overall seed, Corban University, who handed the Knights their only conference loss this season in a 2-1 Warrior home win at the beginning of October. Tomorrow, November 9
th at 4pm PST, the Knights will look to get that revenge win against the Warriors with a trip to the Conference Tournament Championship Game on the line.
