SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth men's soccer team opens the second round of Northwest Conference matches on the road in Oregon this weekend. The Pirates play at Linfield on Saturday and at Willamette on Sunday. Both will start at 2:30 pm.
Check the Whitworth men's soccer schedule for live links to follow the action.
The Pirates: Whitworth (5-5-2 overall, 3-3-1 NWC) lost 2-0 at Whitman in the Pirates' only match last weekend. Whitworth kept the match scoreless through the first half, despite the Blues holding a 7-0 edge in shots (4-0 in shots on-goal). Whitman got two goals early in the second half and held the Bucs off the scoreboard.
The Opponents: Linfield is 4-7-1 overall and 3-3-1 in the NWC. The Wildcats lost 4-1 at league-leading Willamette last Saturday. Junior midfielder Sid Kosaris leads the team with five goals and one assist. He had Linfield's only goal against Willamette. Whitworth defeated the Wildcats 3-0 in Spokane just over a week ago. Tyler Wisen scored twice and Jaime Rodriguez also scored for the Pirates.
Willamette is 9-0-2 overall and 7-0 in the NWC heading into a match against Whitman on Saturday. The 7th-ranked Bearcats are two wins clear of second place PLU through the first round of conference matches. Thirteen different players have scored for Willamette, led by midfielder Pierce Galloway, who has two goals and three assists. Whitworth took a 1-0 lead early against the Bearcats on October 1st, but ended up losing 2-1 in Spokane.
The Coach: Jeremy Payne, a talented and highly accomplished young coach, is in his third season as men's soccer coach at Whitworth University in 2022.
Payne is a graduate of Messiah College (Pa.), where he was the NSCAA Division III Player of the Year in 2012 and 2014. Following graduation from Messiah, Payne became a graduate assistant coach at Eastern University (St. David's, Pa.) in August of 2015 and served in that role for two seasons before he was promoted to head coach in March of 2017. He led the Eagles to a 42-17-5 record and two Division III tournament appearances over those three seasons.
Coming up: Whitworth will host Puget Sound and PLU on Oct. 22-23.
