Box Score

NEWBERG, Ore. – Amy Hasson scored the only goal of the game through a crowd of defenders in the 56th minute, giving the visiting Whitman College Missionaries a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the George Fox University Bruins in a Northwest Conference women's soccer match Saturday afternoon here at Morse Field.

Whitman controlled play for most of the first half, taking 11 shots to four for George Fox, but only two were on goal.  The Missionaries' best scoring chance came 12:25 into the period when Hasson's shot from the right side hit the crossbar and bounced away.

George Fox got more opportunities in the second half with 13 shots to six for Whitman, but it was the Missionaries who got the game's one break.  After a throw-in from the left sideline, Jennifer Doane secured the ball at the top of the penalty box and fed it inside to Hasson crossing through from the left.  Hasson turned and shot through a pack of players toward the near post, where Bruin keeper Sally Page was able to divert the ball with a dive to her right.  The momentum of the shot, however, carried the ball through and just inside the post at the 56:42 mark.

The Bruins stepped up their attack thereafter in an effort to tie the game, taking 11 of their 17 total shots in the final 33 minutes, but Whitman keeper Courtney Porter was up to the task, deflecting five Bruin shots in that time.  She finished with 10 saves, while Page had four for the Bruins.  The George Fox defense held Corina Gabbert, the second-leading scorer in the conference with 20 points, to only two shots all day as Sophia De Graff marked her closely all game long.

George Fox played without it top two scorers, Jenny McKinsey and Kirsten Cardwell, for most of the game due to leg injuries.  Cardwell, who has nine points on the season, missed the entire game, while McKinsey, the team leader with 11 points, did not enter the game until the 60th minute.  McKinsey had the Bruins' best chance for a tie with five minutes left, but her shot from 15 yards out from the right side just missed the far post.

George Fox (8-3, NWC 4-3) had its four-game winning streak and string of four straight shutouts snapped.  Whitman (7-3, NWC 5-2) won its second in a row.  Both teams are back in action Sunday at 12:00 noon as the Bruins host the 16th-ranked Whitworth University Pirates and the Missionaries visit the Pacific University Boxers.  NWC men's games will follow each at 2:30 p.m.