Sept. 24, 2016 Box Score
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -Luke Olney broke a halftime tie with a penalty kick goal in the 49th minute to give Western Washington a 3-2 lead before Seattle Pacific netted a late equalizer in the 84th minute as the Vikings battled to a 3-3 tie with the Falcons after two overtime periods on Saturday evening at Harrington Field.
The back-and-forth contest featured three lead changes as Seattle Pacific (2-3-2, 0-1-1 GNAC) opened the scoring in the 15th minute before WWU (3-2-2, 0-1-1) responded with two first-half goals to gain a lead. The Falcons netted a tying goal just before halftime, only to see Olney give the Vikings an advantage early in the second half. SPU's second equalizing goal of the match came with WWU playing down a man, following the first of four red cards given during the contest.
Mori Tsuchiya put the Falcons up 1-0 in the 15th minute, finishing from close range after a rebounded shot from Gabe Kellum.
The Vikings quickly countered in the 19th minute with a goal from freshman forward Christian Rotter (Auburn, WA/Auburn Mountainview), his first of the season. The goal came just after a failed goal kick pass attempt that Rotter and junior forward Anthony Dean (Bellevue College, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) teamed up to steal, with Rotter scoring in a mostly-open 18-yard box from 13 yards away.
WWU gained a 2-1 advantage in the 41st minute when junior forward Drew Barker (Tacoma, WA/Bellarmine Prep) dribbled to his left and fired a shot into the net from 11 yards away following a corner kick opportunity for the Vikings. It was Barker's second goal of the season.
Just as the Vikings quickly countered after SPU's opening goal, the Falcons returned the favor with a 44th-minute goal from Samuel Agyei who put away another rebounded shot from Kellum.
Olney's finished his penalty kick to the lower-right corner of the net for the 3-2 lead fewer than five minutes into the second half for his second goal of the year. WWU held SPU to 4 shots in the second half but the Falcons capitalized late and scored with a man advantage.
Olney was given a red card in the 72nd minute and the Falcons scored 11 minutes later when Ryan Higgins finished from 13 yards away following a long ball served up the field and flicked on to him. Immediately following the goal, a red card was issued to each team and the SPU was given a second red card in the final minute of the second half. As a result, the teams played 9 versus 9 through the overtime periods.
SPU put 2 shots on goal over the course of the overtime periods while WWU placed 3 shots on target in the overtime but both defenses held strong.
Junior goalkeeper Tyler Visten (Mount Vernon, WA/Skagit Valley College) collected 5 saves while SPU goalkeeper Cody Lang made 6 saves.
