NAMPA, Idaho –
Theo Lamare scored the game winner and Montana State University Billings men's soccer held off Northwest Nazarene University 1-0 Thursday night at NNU Soccer Field in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game. MSUB goalkeeper
Jessy Martin impressed with eight saves for the shutout and the 'Jackets made few defensive mistakes in the second half to earn their second regular season clean sheet.
The deciding goal came off the foot of Lamare in the 51
st minute.
Yaniss Aka slid a pass to Lamare on the right side through traffic. Lamare then juggled the ball to the left of a defender, found a sliver of space, and curled a brilliant low shot right-to-left inside the far post. NNU goalkeeper Alex Nadermann dove to his right but failed to get a gloved hand on the ball. It was Lamare's second goal this season and also his second game winner.
"Tonight we witnessed a quality soccer game," commented head coach
Thomas Chameraud. "NNU is a quality team that is coached very well. I thought we started the game on the right foot by putting pressure on them and forcing turnovers, but we didn't finish on chances and let NNU get back into the game. Jessy had an unbelievable save that kept us in it. The second half was more of a battle but we were organized and took advantage of a counter attack to score with a great finish. The guys fought until the end to get that first win in the GNAC. We are of course happy but there is still work to do Saturday at Concordia, a place where we have never won. We'll rest and start preparing for that game."
The Nighthawks outshot the Yellowjackets 8-6, but possession time between the two sides see-sawed throughout. The flow of play was frequently interrupted by fouls on both teams, though MSUB escaped the yellow card. GNAC second leading scorer Jake Levine led all players with five shot attempts and Cameron Natvig finished with four. Lamare put four shot attempts up with three landing on goal.
Shantik Bedrosian posted two.
Luca Battistotti,
Noah Runsvold,
Bryan Maxwell, and
Cole Hage played a full 90 minutes along with Martin, who withstood a second half collision on a save.
Northwest Nazarene (4-3, 0-1 GNAC) travels to Seattle Pacific on October 10. MSU Billings (4-3-1, 1-0 GNAC) will be in Portland to play Concordia University (3-2, 0-0 GNAC) Saturday at 2 p.m.
THE BUZZ: Theo Lamare was named St. Vincent Player of the Game for MSUB…The 'Jackets will try to beat the Cavaliers on the road for the first time in school history Saturday. The teams have been playing against one another in the GNAC since 2014.
