BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- The Western Washington University men's soccer team scored twice late in the first half en route to a 2-0 victory over visiting Puget Sound on Saturday evening at Harrington Field during the final exhibition preseason game for the Vikings. WWU took the lead in the 40th minute when sophomore forward Christian Rotter (Auburn, WA/Auburn Mountainview) found the net with a header from 7 yards away off a cross from the left side by freshman midfielder Georg Cholewa (Leipzig, Germany/Sportgymnasium Chemnitz).
The Vikings were awarded a penalty kick fewer than 4 minutes after taking the lead and senior midfielder Luke Olney (Enumclaw, WA/Enumclaw) converted the opportunity to double the WWU advantage in the 44th minute.
WWU held a 25-11 advantage in total shots for the game, and outshot the Loggers 15-2 in the opening half. The Vikings put 11 shots on goal compared with 5 for the Loggers also took 11 corner kicks compared with 4 for Puget Sound.
Senior goalkeeper Tyler Visten (Mount Vernon, WA/Skagit Valley College) and freshman goalkeeper Thomas Ewert (Vancouver, WA/Skyview) combined to record the shutout, each playing a half. Visten made 1 save while Ewert recorded 4 saves. The WWU lineup in the second half, featuring primarily substitutes with the majority of the WWU starters playing only the first half, kept the Loggers off the scoreboard to record the clean sheet.
Puget Sound goalkeeper Wren Norwood made 8 saves, while the Puget Sound defense was credited with a team save as well.
As an exhibition, Saturday's contest did not count toward the official 2017 season statistics or record, and was one of three exhibition games leading up to the regular season for the Vikings. WWU begins the regular season next Thursday after three preseason games against Gonzaga, Whitworth and Puget Sound.
WWU hosts Sonoma State at Harrington Field on Thursday (Aug. 31, 7 pm) to start the regular season. The Vikings remain at home for their second regular-season game to face Chico State on Saturday (Sept. 2, 12 pm) at Harrington Field. The first road trip of the season will be the following week to Colorado as WWU will travel to take on Colorado Christian (Sept. 7, 4 pm MT) and MSU Denver (Sept. 9, 6 pm MT).
Game Note: WWU senior midfielder Luke Olney's father, Reece Olney, is the head men's soccer coach at Puget Sound and is entering his 24th year leading the Loggers.
