BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University men's soccer team scored three first-half goals, including a pair by junior forward Christian Rotter two minutes apart, to lead the Vikings to a 3-0 shutout victory over Northwest Nazarene University Thursday evening in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at Harrington Field.
 
With their second consecutive shutout victory, the Vikings moved into a second-place tie in the GNAC standings at 4-4-1 (13 points) in conference play and improved to 8-6-1 overall. NNU dropped to 3-11-1 overall and 3-6-0 in GNAC play with its sixth consecutive loss.
 
"I thought we did well from the start. We were very organized defensively and capitalized on the opportunities we created," said WWU head coach Greg Brisbon. "In the second half we did a good job of keeping possession and being patient as we went forward."
 
The game was scoreless through the first 19 minutes of the contest, before Rotter (Auburn, WA/Auburn Mountainview) blistered the NNU defense for a pair of goals 2:03 apart. His first goal came at the 19:59 mark when sophomore midfielder Drew Farnsworth (Auckland, NZ) threaded a pass through the NNU defense to Rotter, who chipped the ball over the goalkeeper from 16-yards out.
 
Just over two minutes later at the 22:02 mark, Rotter took a diagonal pass from sophomore midfielder Georg Cholewa (Leipzig, Germany), and blasted the ball from 12-yards out that caromed off the NNU goalkeepers hands and trickled into the goal.
 
Junior forward Ryan Schaefer (Burien, WA/Kennedy Catholic/Univ. of Denver) added to the lead in the 33^rd minute when he took a long cross from Cholewa in the middle of the box and tapped home his third goal of the season.
 
The WWU defense allowed only one shot on goal, while recording the sixth shutout of the season. WWU has now not allowed a goal over the last 199:31 of action dating back to the Simon Fraser game. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Brandon Wolter (Vancouver, WA/Union) made one save while recording his sixth shutout of the season, tied for 6^th-most in the WWU single-season record book.
 
The Vikings (8-6-1, 4-4-1) remain at home hosting rival Seattle Pacific on Saturday with kickoff at 7 pm at Harrington Field. WWU has recorded 6 shutouts this season, 2^nd in the conference behind Simon Fraser (10)…WWU swept NNU in the season series, out-scoring the Nighthawks 8-0 in the two games…Vikings now lead the all-time series vs. NNU 17-6-3 dating back to 1996…WWU is now 4-2-2 vs. the Nighthawks since 2015 and 8-2-2 all-time in games played in Bellingham (3-0-1 over last 4 home contests)…Christian Rotter recorded his first career multi-goal game and has scored his 3 goals this season in the last 4 games…Georg Cholewa leads the team in goals (7), assists (6) and points (20)…the 20 points are now tied for 15^th-most in the WWU single-season record book. Fans can follow WWU men's soccer online at WWUVikings.com/MSoc, and via social media on Twitter (@SoccerWWU), Instagram (@wwu_msoccer) and Facebook (@WWUsoccermens).