Linfield won at home on Friday against the Walla Walla University Wolves and lost on the road to the Northwest University Eagels.  The Wildcats blew the Wolves away, winning the game 8-2, but lost 3-0 to the Eagles.

 Linfield got on the board in the ninth minute courtesy of Ryan Kister, ’21.  But the Wolves put up a fight by converting on two penalty kicks in the sixteenth and nineteenth minute.  But then, the Wildcats answered back with a penalty kick of their own.

Isias Flores, ’20, converted on a free kick in the thirtieth minute to tie up the game.  With ten minutes in the half, Henry Rosenfeld, ’20, was subbed onto the field, and thirty seconds later, he was running to his teammates in celebration of his first career goal.  Finally, Andrew Fischer ,’19, hit at long range goal from thirty-five feet out, giving the Wildcats a comfortable 4-2 lead at the half.

  Linfield showed no signs of stopping their onslaught in the second half.  Within eleven minutes of starting, Kister bagged his second goal.  And four minutes later, Kister got a hat-trick getting his third goal from a Penalty Kick.

Dayton Farrow, ’21, had many one-on-one chances with the goalkeeper after being fed the ball by Sophomore Malachi Stalberg, ’20, but could not finish.  He did almost get a goal by slotting the ball through the goalie’s legs, but the ball did not cross the line before it was stopped.

Linfield got two more goals, one from Chase Wittaker, ‘21, in the sixty-fifth minute and one from Alejandro Lee-Perez, ’21, in the sixty-seventh minute.

After the win, Linfield had a very optimistic view for Saturday’s game.  Dylan Shepherd, ’19  said on the teams momentum carrying into the rest of the season, “We’re definitely hoping so.  We’re at Northwest University tomorrow, that’s going to be a battle, but as long as we can keep scoring goals, I think we’ll be alright.”

Linfield hoped to ride the momentum into Saturday’s game against Northwest University, but ultimately it was not to be.  Northwest University lead the game in shots attempted and goals saved with twenty-three shots and eight saves.  Linfield attempted eighteen shots and had five saves.  Both teams had four corner kicks. Flores led Linfield with six shots on goal.

After the loss, one soccer player, called the game “extremely frustrating”.  He went on to say that all three goals were not the fault of the goalie in any way.

He described the first goal against goalie Nick Van Kleek,’20, an extremely well placed shot that Nick had no chance of blocking.  The other two goals were due to the defensive players’ lapses in concentration.  The second goal was scored off a corner kick and the goal scorer wasn’t even marked.  The final goal was scored because the defender tried passing the ball back to the goalie, but the pass was weak enough that Northwest University was able to steal the ball and score.

Linfield created many chances, but many of their shot attempts came from outside of the box.  Most of Flores’ shot attempts were forty-feet from the goal with only one coming from inside the box.  The same could be said for Kister as three of his four shot attemps were from forty-feet out.

The ‘Cats overall record is 1-1.

Next up, Linfield will look to bounce back on the road against Multnomah in Portland, Ore.  The kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. this Friday.

Then on Sunday, the Wildcats come back home to face off against Corban University at 6 p.m.