MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – Down 2-1 at halftime, the Linfield Wildcats scored two in the final 45 minutes to down the Whitworth Pirates and extend their winning streak to three games. Scoring for the Wildcats were Kristen Burke, Sydney Kuehn and Michayla Sponsel with the game winner.
 
The Wildcats have won three straight in Northwest Conference play and sit at 4-2, which is fourth, while the Pirates fall to 1-4-1, which is seventh. The three game winning streak for the Wildcats is their longest since the end of the 2016 season.
 
Coming off back-to-back 3-0 wins over Lewis & Clark and Whitman, Linfield scored early to create pressure on Whitworth. Burke scored her fifth of the season off a pass from Kuehn.
 
Burke has scored or assisted in five straight games and her five goals already this season, match her career high. She is now tied for 12^th in the all-time career goals in Linfield women's soccer history.
 
The Pirates did not play from behind for a long time as they scored their first just four minutes after the Wildcats, who were the more aggressive team having 15 shots to the Pirates' nine.
 
Both teams looking for a goal to break the tie, the Pirates capitalized on a defensive breakdown by the Wildcats.
 
Whitworth's Hannah Miller charged into the box following the defensive breakdown and her first shot was saved by Linfield's Madi Reimer, but Miller scored on her own rebound to give Whitworth the lead.
 
The Wildcats had given up just two goals in their last three, but had given up two in the first 40 minutes on Sunday afternoon.
 
Linfield had plenty of shots, but only five of them were goal so getting the ball on the goal was tough for Linfield.
 
Looking to tie the game, Sponsel was in the box, when she was fouled by the Pirates and Kuehn took the penalty kick and scored her seventh of the season, which is tied for first in the conference.
 
Kuehn scored eight goals last season which was the second in the NWC, she already has seven this season and is now tied for eighth all-time in program history.
 
Sponsel came into this weekend not registering any points this season, she had three on Friday night's win over Whitman with a goal and an assist and in the 75^th minute, she scored her second goal of the season, Kuehn had the assist on that goal.
 
The three-headed attack of Kuehn, Burke, and Sponsel accounted for six goals and 17 points in the two wins for the Wildcats.
 
After giving up two goals in the first half, Reimer and the Linfield defense was able to slow things down in the second half and Reimer made six saves, which tied the season high for the Sherwood, Oregon, native.
 
Sunday was the Young Cats Club day for the Wildcats, where kids 17 and under get free t-shirts and autographs from select student-athletes and the young Wildcat fans went home happy with the win.
 
Despite the loss on Sunday, Whitworth still leads the all-time head to head 33-17-3. This was the first win for Linfield over Whitworth since October 2016.
 
UP NEXT
Linfield takes a quick one game trip to Tacoma, Washington, taking on Pacific Lutheran on Saturday at 12 p.m. before coming home to face George Fox on Sunday at 12 p.m.