SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth men's soccer team has a very busy weekend with its final three road matches of 2022. The Pirates play at Lewis & Clark College on Friday at 7:00 pm, at George Fox on Saturday and at Pacific (Ore.) on Sunday. Both weekend contests will start at 2:30 pm.
Check the Whitworth men's soccer schedule for live links to follow the action.
The Pirates: Whitworth (7-7-2 overall, 5-5-1 NWC) split at home against the Tacoma schools last weekend.
The Pirates defeated Puget Sound 3-0 with three second-half goals on Saturday. Sterling Eaglin assisted on the first goal six minutes into the period and scored the second 12 minutes later. Tyler Wisen was the beneficiary of Eaglin's assist. Jordan Voigt scored Whitworth's third goal, on an assist by Jaime Rodriguez, in the 77th minute. The Pirate defense limited the Loggers to a single shot on goal.
Whitworth lost 3-1 to Pacific Lutheran on Sunday. All the scoring occurred in the first half in this match. Whitworth had pulled within 2-1 on Wisen's second goal of the weekend with ten minutes to play in the half. But the Lutes scored an insurance goal with 15 seconds left in the first period. The Pirates outshot PLU 14-10 overall and 8-3 in shots on goal in the second half, but could not find the back of the net.
Whitworth Leaders: Whitworth has gotten strong offensive production from a couple of players in 2022. Beckett Arthur has six goals and five assists to lead the Bucs in goals scored and in total points (17). Tyler Wisen is tied with Arthur for the team lead in goals. Jaime Rodriguez leads the team in assists (8) and in total minutes played (1372).
The Opponents: Lewis & Clark College has a varsity men's soccer team for the first time since 1991. The Pioneers are not participating in the Northwest Conference this year, while playing with a roster of 12 freshmen and several holdovers from the club program. L&C is 0-5 in countable matches and has not played an official contest since losing 5-1 at Pacific Lutheran on October 10.
George Fox comes into the weekend 3-9-3 overall and 1-6-3 in the NWC. The Bruins picked up their first conference win of the season on Sunday, defeating Linfield 1-0 on the road. Freshman forward Eugene Peltier has four goals and two assists in 2022, while junior midfielder Robert Rodarte has three goals and one assist. Whitworth and George Fox tied 2-2 in Spokane on September 18th as Jaime Rodriguez posted a pair of match-tying tallies.
Pacific (Ore.) is 1-12-3 overall and 0-9-2 in the NWC heading into its match with Whitman on Saturday. The Boxers lost 2-1 to Linfield and 3-1 at Willamette last weekend. Senior Jericho Lara has three goals and two assists, while senior Nico Allen has one goal and three assists. Whitworth rallied to defeat Pacific 2-1 in Spokane on Sept. 17 thanks to a pair of goals from Jordan Voigt.
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 Whitman on November 5 in the final match of the season.
