McMINNVILLE, ORE. --The Linfield Wildcats fell 3-2 to the Northwest Conference leading the Willamette Bearcats in a thrilling overtime match in McMinnville on Saturday night.
Willamette showed their dominance in the first half, scoring their first goal in the 16
th minute. Patrick Charlton was able to fire a shot off a rebound following a save by
Cameron Perron to go up 1-0. They scored their second goal in the 31
st minute when Nicholas Ballenger, Willamette's leading scorer on the season, found the back of the net with a six-yard header. Ballenger was assisted by Omar Dominguez-Pascasio and Yuta Suga.
Linfield responded quickly coming out of halftime when junior forward
Ryan Kister secured the ball and scored his first goal of the 2018 campaign in the 46
th minute. The goal gave Linfield a fresh energy that led to the Wildcats out-shooting the Bearcats 11 to 3 in the second half.
Linfield tied the match at 2-2 when freshman forward
Connor Heintz scored in the 67
th minute off the rebound. It was Henitz's first career goal as a Wildcat, and it could not have come at a better moment. Despite both teams playing aggressive in the final minutes of regulation, neither were able to score and the match went to overtime.
Although both sides had chances in overtime, it was Willamette that was able to come out on top when Suga recorded his second assist of the match, setting up Hikaru Ichigi to slot the ball just under Perron on the left side in the 97
th minute.
The Bearcats were undefeated in conference play coming into Saturday's match, and will remain so as their record improves to 10-1-1 (7-0-1).
Next
The Wildcats will travel to Spokane next Saturday to play the Whitworth Pirates.
