Box Score WALLA WALLA, Wash. –
Daniel Kim's tying goal in the 74th minute allowed Whitman College's men's soccer team to head into overtime -- for the second day in a row -- but visiting Linfield College netted the game-winner late in overtime to steal a 2-1 Northwest Conference win from the host Missionaries.
Whitman (3-4, 0-2 NWC) swarmed around the Wildcats' net in the second half, accumulating 16 shots while limiting Linfield (3-2-1, 1-0-1) to only three. Yet the only shot to change the scoreboard was Kim's at the 73:25 mark.
Riley Paul gained possession at the top of the attacking third and then pushed a perfect thru ball between Wildcat defenders, leading Kim toward the goal. Kim and Linfield goalkeeper Grant Loriaux raced each other to the ball but Kim arrived just ahead of Loriaux and guided his shot past the now-desperate keeper for the equalizer.
Just minutes earlier the Missionaries let a potential tying goal get away on a missed penalty kick that sailed barely wide of the right post at 69:32. The momentum from Kim's score further spurred the Whitman attack, though.
Bridger Sellegren's shot on frame one minute after Kim's goal was saved by Jack O'Keefe, between the pipes for Linfield due to a minor injury for Loriaux who was hurt on the play that forced the PK attempt. Forty-five seconds later Kim nearly added a second goal but lifted it just over the crossbar. And then two minutes after that O'Keefe had to save a shot off
Park Harmon's foot. Whitman's
Jose Beleche provided the last shots in regulation, getting off successive shots in the 86th, one blocked by a Wildcat defender and the rebound shot curling wide of the right post.
Linfield registered the first two shots of the extra period with Whitman goalie
Niko Contos saving the first just 48 seconds into the OT, followed by a Linfield shot that was blocked two minutes later.
It was the Missionaries' turn to end the game next but a Sellegren shot was wide left at 93:13 and
Colin Faunt's shot was over the crossbar at 94:53.
That left Linfield's Dylan Leathers to provide the game-ender at 96:52. A harmless service into Whitman's defensive third simply bounced the wrong way after a clearing attempt and Leathers stepped up to the loose ball and unleashed the winner from high and left in the box.
Contos finished the game with six saves for Whitman while Loriaux and O'Keefe teamed up to register six saves in the visitors' victory.
The Missionaries will try to bounce back from consecutive overtime losses when they continue Northwest Conference action with their next games as they hit the road to take on host Pacific (Ore.) University on Saturday, Sept. 27 followed by a game at George Fox University Sunday afternoon.
