WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Brianna Brown pounded home the eventual game-winning goal in the 80th minute for Whitman College in its 2-1 victory over visiting George Fox University Friday afternoon in a Northwest Conference women's soccer contest that was the season finale for both teams.

The win at the Whitman Athletic Fields improves the Missionaries' overall record to 9-7-4 and elevates their conference mark to 7-5-4, the first winning record the program has recorded within the league since 2008 when they were 9-6-1. A young George Fox team, with only two seniors, drops to 3-13-3 overall and 3-11-1 in the league.

Brown's fourth goal of the fall came off a corner kick opportunity lofted into the box by Lena de Guzman. The cross from de Guzman carried just past the near post where Alissa Soo got a touch to flick it on toward the back post where Brown volleyed the pass from Soo into the netting before Bruins goalkeeper Ally Swanson was able to move from the near to back post.

The goal proved to be the final shot of the game in a contest during which Whitman out shot the visitors by a margin of 17-6, including 10-2 in the opening 45 minutes of action.

Whitman started the game with a decided advantage in the attacking position, getting off three shots before Fox found its way into its attacking third where it registered a shot in the 25th minute that was deftly blocked away by a Missionaries defender.

Elyse Lauren threatened to break the scoreless tie in the 29th but Swanson came up with the stop, only to delay the deficit she and the Bruins would fall into two minutes later.

Continued pressure mounted from Whitman until Danielle Wieck rocketed a shot from 30 yards out that glanced off a Bruins defender just enough to change the ball's flight and leave Swanson out of luck as she valiantly but unsuccessfully tried to regain position, helplessly watching the ball fly past her outstretched gloves for a one-goal Whitman lead at the 30:59 mark.

Twice more before the halftime intermission Whitman threatened Swanson, once with a de Guzman shot that sailed inches above the crossbar and then again two minutes later on an Olivia Thomson shot that Swanson nabbed for a save.

Action went end-to-end in the early minutes of the second half. First the Bruins built pressure resulting in a needed save from goalie Haley Case to preserve the Whitman lead, and then at the opposite end with the ensuing possession where Thomson's shot was blocked by a Fox defender in the box.

The Bruins transitioned quickly after the block, working the possession into a 15-yard shot from Kacie Morgan which handcuffed a leaping Case, ricocheting up and over the goalie who dived back desperately to try to stop the ball from bouncing over the line. Case's near-miraculous recovery was a half second late, though, as the ball trickled across the line for the equalizer only seven minutes into the half.

It took time for the Whitman attack to reorganize after the tying goal, but when it did it began to swarm around the Bruins net as it had done for much of the first half. Brown let loose with a pair of consecutive shots in the 64th and 67th minutes that slipped outside the left post then Wieck hit the crossbar with a shot near the end of the 71st minute.

George Fox temporarily halted the attack after Wieck's near miss, forcing Case to come up with a save on a Becca Allen shot, but the Missionaries resumed their pressure on Swanson their next time down field as a Wieck shot was blocked in the 73rd and a Danielle Audino look required a save from Swanson in the 78th.

Continued possession in the Bruins' defending third resulted in the corner kick chance for de Guzman, Soo and Brown that became the winning play at the 79:17 mark.

Case finished with three saves in earning the win between the pipes for Whitman while Swanson suffered the loss after coming up with five stops.

In addition to the winning conference mark established with the victory, Friday's result sends four Whitman seniors -- Jade Anderson, Nicolette Carnahan, Raechel Gano and Justine Kovak -- out on a winning note in the final collegiate game of their careers.