SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth men's soccer returns home to host league-leading Willamette and up-and-coming Linfield in a pair of important NWC matches this weekend. The Pirates play Willamette on Saturday and Linfield on Sunday, both at 2:30 pm.
Check the Whitworth men's soccer schedule for live links to follow the action.
The Pirates: Whitworth (4-3-2 overall, 2-1-1 NWC) split on the road in Tacoma last weekend, falling 3-1 at Pacific Lutheran but winning 2-1 at Puget Sound.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead at Pacific Lutheran, but the Lutes pulled away with three second half goals to earn the victory. Tyler Wisen scored for Whitworth in the 10th minute on an assist by Jaime Rodriguez. Aiden Chase started in goal for the Bucs and had five saves.
Sterling Eaglin scored the only goal of the second half, on an assist from Jaime Rodriguez, to lift the Pirates to a 2-1 win at Puget Sound. Wisen had his second goal of the weekend in the 11th minute to give the Bucs an early lead. Andrew Wolotira made four saves and picked up the victory in goal.
The Opponents: Willamette (6-0-2 overall, 4-0 NWC) comes into the weekend as the hottest team in the conference. The Bearcats rolled past Pacific (5-0) and George Fox (7-0) last weekend. Junior forward Jett Starr has five goals and two assists, while senior MF Pierce Galloway has five goals and one assist. Last season Whitworth defeated Willamette 2-1 in Spokane, but fell 3-0 on the road to the Bearcats.
Linfield is 3-5-1 overall and 2-1-1 in the NWC heading into Saturday's match at Whitman. The much-improved Wildcats earned a pair of 1-0 wins at George Fox and Pacific last weekend. Junior MF Sid Kosaris has three goals and one assists. Evan Stafford, a freshman defender, leads the team in minutes played. Whitworth swept Linfield in 2021, winning 6-1 at home and 2-1 in 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 play at Whitman on October 8th.
