SPOKANE, Wash. – Yacine Bitibale's hard cross from the left side of the goal line slipped through the hands of the Pacific University goalkeeper and lifted Whitworth to a hard-fought 1-0 victory in a Northwest Conference women's soccer contest on Sunday afternoon at the Whitworth Soccer Field.
Bitibale's goal helped the Pirates improve to 3-1-1 overall and 1-0-1 in the NWC. The visiting Boxers fell to 1-4-3, 1-2-1.
Whitworth had two apparent first half goals disallowed by off-sides calls. The second was a nice redirect off the foot of Kylee Russell. There were also several hard contacts within the Pacific penalty area that went uncalled as fouls, allowing the Boxers to keep the match scoreless despite the fact that the Pirates had a 7-0 advantage in shots during the first half.
Bitibale's winner came in the 65th minute after she tracked down a loose ball deep in the Pacific zone. Bitibale worked around a defender near the goal line and fired a hard cross directly in front of the goal. The smoked effort slipped through Kyle Pascual's hands and rolled slowly across the goal line. It was Bitibale's second goal of the season.
The Boxers outshot Whitworth 8-7 in the second half, and five of those shots came in the final five minutes. Gwendolyn Saing had her shot bounce off the cross bar, followed by an attempt from Lilia Fiorda that just went over the bar.
Paige Broadrick made three second half saves, including a punch away on an awkwardly-floating long free kick, to keep the sheet clean. Pascual also made three saves for Pacific.
Whitworth will play its third match in six days when the Pirates host Whitman College on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 pm in the season's first Battle of Whits.
