Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho — A phenomenal start to the season hit a speed bump Saturday in the form of the two-time national champion Toros.

A redirected ball just 2 minutes, 20 seconds into the game proved to be all the scoring in a contest won by Cal State Dominguez Hills, which spoiled the home opener for the 13^th-ranked Northwest Nazarene men's soccer team at Finkbeiner Park on the NNU campus.

"Today was a bad combination of our worst team performance of the year against one of the best teams we've played in several years," said NNU head men's soccer coach Coe Michaelson. "Take nothing away from Dominguez Hills, they were really good and fully deserved the win, but we looked exceptionally fatigued and flat.

"As we told the guys though, a season has ups and downs and it's all about how you respond to the downs," NNU's coach added.

The Crusaders (3-1-0) might have been a bit fatigued from a week-long trip to Hawaii that saw NNU top Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii Pacific and BYU-Hawaii before arriving back on campus midday Wednesday.
 

With about 75 hours to recover from the long opening road trip before playing the Toros, the Crusaders saw the game decided in the opening minutes Saturday when Joey Chica sent a cross from the left side of the NNU goal box toward teammate Mike Diaz, who redirected the ball under the outstretched arms of diving Crusader goalkeeper Ryan Foo.

With just 2:20 gone the Toros (3-1-0) held a 1-0 lead, and the game stayed there for the rest of evening, despite plenty of chances for both teams.

Foo made eight saves in goal for the Crusaders, including a diving stop on a penalty kick by Pedro Velasquez late in the first half.

On the other end, Chase Gentry made six saves for the shutout, and also got some help teammate Tony Alfaro who added one more save.

With 10 minutes gone, NNU almost tied the score when Fernando Alvarez looked to have an open goal to shoot at, but Alfaro stepped in front of the Crusaders' shot just before it cross the goal-line for a crucial stop.

That turned out to be the closest NNU got in a battle of two teams who could end up meeting again in November in the NCAA National Tournament.

But before either team gets there, both have a long season ahead, and for the Crusaders that means responding to Saturday's setback with a road game at Dominican (Calif.) on Tuesday before opening GNAC play on next Saturday when NNU hosts Concordia at 3 p.m.