Wolves blank Simon Fraser to reclaim first place

BURNABY, B.C. — Western Oregon took another step closer to a possible Great Northwest Athletic Conference title with a 3-0 win over Simon Fraser on Thursday at Terry Fox Field in British Columbia.

The victory, WOU's fifth in a row, boosted the Wolves back into first place with a 6-1-2 record and 20 standings points. Whether they stay there or not depends on the outcome of the Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene contest, taking place as we speak (6 p.m. PT).

Additionally, a Seattle Pacific loss would give the GNAC title to the Wolves outright, even before their regular-season finale at Western Washington on Saturday. The Falcons currently have 19 standings points, which is where they would stay with a loss tonight. A tie gives SPU 20 points, and then the Wolves would need a tie or win against the Vikings on Saturday to claim the crown.

As they have done a number of times during their five-match win streak, Western Oregon scored early to put the pressure on from the outset. Marcus Vazquez buried a shot into the upper left-hand portion of the net just over seven minutes into the contest, after taking a pass from Jacob Solek to make it 1-0.

WOU added another tally in the 37th minute on Eli White's score, also high and left. That assist came from Archie Dhima, his fourth of the year, giving him 36 points. They took that 2-0 lead into intermission.

The Wolves kept the Red Leafs off the scoreboard and added another at 69 minutes off of Erick Chavez's foot. This time Abokye Bikyeombe provided the leading pass.

Simon Fraser, who came into the match in third place, is now 4-3-2 in GNAC play and 6-4-5 overall. Ironically, they outshot WOU 27-12, but only two of those shots were on goal, where the Wolves had a 7-2 edge. The Red Leafs had a 10-5 corner-kick advantage.

Austin Valdez earned the shutout with a pair of saves. It was Valdez's sixth shutout of the year.