TACOMA, Wash. – A pair of unusual first-half goals, one a wind-blown score off a corner kick and the other a penalty kick, lifted the 24th-ranked University of Puget Sound Loggers to a 2-0 victory over the visiting George Fox University Bruins in an Northwest Conference men's soccer match Saturday afternoon here at Peyton Field.

Puget Sound, which is also the top-ranked team in the West Region, clinched the conference championship with the win while improving to 13-4 overall and 11-1 in the league.  UPS now has 33 points in the standings to 26 for second-place Whitworth University, and with only two games remaining for both teams, the Pirates can only get to 32 points.  George Fox, meanwhile, dropped to 1-17 on the season and 0-12 in the conference, falling for the 16th consecutive time despite a fine defensive effort. 

It was only 1:32 into the game when the Loggers' Eneko Bereziartua lofted a corner kick opportunity across the mouth of the goal.  With a natural curve on the kick and aided by winds gusting up to 40 miles an hour which were blowing directly into the George Fox net in the first half, the ball swerved just inside the far post for a 1-0 Logger lead and Bereziartua's first score of the season.

The Loggers added an insurance goal at the 26:30 mark when a George Fox foul in the box gave the home team a penalty shot.  Carson Swope stepped forward to drill the kick home for his 12th goal of the year, and the UPS defense, which is 24th in the NCAA Division III with a 0.62 goals against average, did the rest, limiting the Bruins to four shots all game.  Angelo Florez had half of the Bruins' shots and the only one that was on goal in the 39th minute.

Other than the two peculiar scores, the George Fox defense turned in one of its best efforts of the season, the back line and keeper Luke Ridder holding the Loggers to only 14 shots in all and just seven on goal.  Ridder earned five saves.  Nathan King posted the shutout by making one save for UPS.

NEXT: George Fox visits Pacific Lutheran University Sunday for its final road game of the year … Puget Sound host Pacific University Sunday … Both games begin at 1:30 p.m. as a concession to the Daylight Savings Time change.