NEWBERG, Ore. – In a defensive battle in which both teams limited each other to relatively few scoring opportunities, the University of Puget Sound Loggers made better use of their chances and escaped with a 2-0 Northwest Conference men's soccer win over the George Fox University Bruins Saturday afternoon here at the Austin Sports Complex.

The visiting Loggers were held to eight shots in all and only five on goal by the Bruins, with Chris Shaw taking half of the Puget Sound shots, three on goal.  The home team managed nine shots in all, four on goal, with Myles Sorokovsky taking a third of the Bruins' shots.

The Loggers took a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute when Ryan Rash sent a cross from the right side of the penalty box across the middle.  Bruin keeper Elliott Davis was out high and dove to get a hand on the ball, but his deflection was corralled by the Loggers' Andrew White, who drove around a Bruin defender and finished into a wide-open goal for his fifth score of the season.

The Bruins' best scoring opportunity came eight minutes later when Sorokovsky got open in the middle and scorched a shot toward the left post.  UPS goalie Chris McDonald launched himself to the right and made a spectacular diving deflection to deny the Bruins the equalizer. 

Puget Sound got a big insurance goal eight minutes into the second half.  Sean Ryan put a cross from the left perfectly into the box, where Shaw redirected it into the upper right corner of the net for his third goal of the season.

McDonald made four saves in recording the shutout for the Loggers.  Only a minute before UPS scored its second goal, Davis took a hard hit from one of the Loggers' offensive players a split second after making a fine stop of a shot by Shaw, but eventually shook it off and played the entire game, recording three saves.

The Bruins held a slight edge in corner kick chances, 8-7, but committed 15 fouls to nine for the Loggers.

NEXT: George Fox (2-14-1, NWC 2-10) hosts Pacific Lutheran University while Puget Sound (10-3-5, NWC 6-2-4) visits Pacific University Sunday, both games at 2:30 p.m.