Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. - Northwest Conference scoring leader Caleb Barnhill scored a pair of goals sandwiched around three others, pacing 14th-ranked Whitworth University to a 5-0 win over the George Fox University Bruins and keeping the Pirates on track toward a second straight conference crown in men's soccer action Friday afternoon here at the Whitworth Soccer Field.

Barnhill got the Pirates on the board early when he took a pass from Travis Jette and scored from the left side of the box at 6:35, his 11th goal of the season.  The Pirates got another goal in the first half when Cameron Bushey drew a foul in the box and converted the penalty kick for his third goal of the season at 28:05.

The Pirates salted the game away with three more scores in the second half.  The first came at 49:53 when Taylor Willi's free kick went forward to John Prugh, who got to the ball an instant before Bruin keeper Jake McGuire and scored his sixth goal of the season.  Elly Bulega went high for a loose ball in the box and lofted it over McGuire at 53:52for his seventh goal to make it 4-0, and Barnhill completed the scoring at 70:57 when he tracked down a ball flicked across the box by Joey Mattina and finished for his 12th tally of the year.

McGuire finished with seven saves for George Fox, while Brian Sherpe collected a pair of saves for the Pirates in 78 minutes, with Derek Casanovas finishing the final 12 minutes. Whitworth outshot the Bruins 16-5, including a 13-2 edge in shots on goal.

George Fox fell to 2-14-3 overall and 1-10-2 in the conference with its seventh straight loss.  Whitworth, now 13-2-3 overall and 9-2-2 in the league, remained two points (29 to 27) ahead of second-place Whitman College, a 2-0 winner Friday over Pacific University.  Whitworth needs only a tie against Pacific to clinch the NWC's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III National Tournament; if there is a tie for the conference title, Whitworth gets the tiebreaker by virtue of a 1-0-1 record against Whitman. 

The regular season concludes Saturday with Whitman hosting George Fox at 2:30 p.m. and Whitworth entertaining Pacific at 1:30 p.m. with the conference title on the line in both games.  Both games will be preceded by NWC women's matches.