SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth men's soccer team hits the road to play Northwest Conference matches in the Tacoma area this weekend. The Pirates play at Pacific Lutheran on Saturday and at Puget Sound on Sunday.
Check the Whitworth men's soccer schedule for live links to follow the action.
The Pirates: Whitworth (3-2-2) fell behind by a goal in all three matches last week, yet still came out of the week without a loss.
The Pirates won 4-1 at Walla Walla in their final non-conference match of the season last Wednesday after the Wolves went ahead 1-0 in the 38th minute. Beckett Arthur answered with three goals by himself, the second two coming within 16 seconds of one another in the second half. Jett Manglona scored the first goal of his Whitworth career with six minutes to play. Whitworth outshot Walla Walla 32-8.
The Pirates fell behind 1-0 to Pacific in the fourth minute on Saturday, but rallied for a 2-1 win. Jordan Voigt scored both goals for Whitworth. The first was on a header in the 33rd minute and the match-winner came in the 61st minute. Jaime Rodriguez had two assists.
The Bucs fell behind George Fox twice on Sunday, but rallied twice for a 2-2 draw. Rodriguez scored both of Whitworth's goals, with Arthur assisting on the first tally. Aiden Chase made three saves in goal for the Pirates.
The Opponents: Pacific Lutheran is 6-1 overall and 1-1 in the NWC. The defending NWC-champion Lutes won 6-0 at Linfield last Saturday, but lost 2-1 at Willamette on Sunday. Sophomore forward Trevor Thompson has five goals and three assists in 2022. He's scored goals in five straight contests. Senior forward Chris Lozano also has five goals, including a hat trick at Linfield. Last season PLU swept Whitworth, winning 3-0 in Spokane and 5-0 in Parkland on the way to its NWC title.
Puget Sound is 4-1-3 overall and 0-1-1 heading into Saturday's match against Whitman. The Loggers also lost 2-1 at Willamette last Saturday before finishing in a 1-1 tie at Linfield on Sunday. Junior forward Stuart Methner has two goals and two assists to lead UPS on offense. Sophomore GK Ryan Saunders has a 0.88 goals-against average with 40 saves. Whitworth split with the Loggers in 2021, winning 3-1 at home and losing 1-0 in double overtime on the road.
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 Willamette and Linfield next weekend.
