SFU’s men’s soccer team has had a strong season right from the start and continues to dominate, shutting out both Northwest Nazarene and Montana State Billings by 7–0 margins at home to improve their record within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference to an impressive 9–1–1, and securing their national ranking for another week.
Both games had similar feels as the Clan embarked on their final home swing of the season — they allowed no goals and less than five shots on goals in the two games combined.
Against NNU, Jovan Blagojevic opened the scoring for the home side before Colin Jacques and Ryan Dhillon added another two goals early in the first half. Defender Magnus Kristensen then stepped up for some big plays in the Crusader’s box scoring his first of the game off a large rebound that bounced out of the visitor’s end, before putting a head on an Alex Rowley corner kick less than three minutes later.
Dhillon then added his second of the game before Gilbert Kyne kicked the final goal. Rowley had two assists in the game while Robert Hyams and
Jaun Sanchez also tallied one assist each.
Against the Yellow Jackets it was Dhillon who opened the scoring, netting the sole goal in the first half. After a half-time talk from head coach Alan Koch motivated the team to keep up the pressure, the home side went on a scoring frenzy as Chris Bargholz, Adam Staschuk and Carlo Basso each added a goal all within a three-minute span.
Basso then scored his second of the night before Jaques potted his second of the weekend and Tarnvir Bhandal added the seventh goal — his first ever collegiate goal.
Dhillon earned the GNAC Red Lion Offensive Athlete of the Week award for his three-goal performance as the Clan’s successful season continued. The men also earned recognition in the classroom as Dhillon and Staschuk were both named to the GNAC All-Academic team following the weekend.
Now the Clan will focus their attention on the final three games of the conference season. If they’re able to win out, they will secure their spot as GNAC champions for the fourth consecutive year and qualify to their second NCAA Division II national tournament in as
many years.
