The men’s soccer team were still seeking their first conference win coming into their home double-headers last weekend. Their first test of the weekend was to try and beat Whitman College.

The Whitman Blues scored the first goal of the match came in first 4 minutes of the match.

But the game had just started and the Wildcats still had the energy to put pressure on the Blues. The Cats took multiple shots with no success until 30 minutes into the game.

Junior Irvin Figueroa took the explosive shot that put Linfield on the board and tied the game 1-1.

Figueroa, the McMinnville native, said about the goal that “initially, the ball was meant to find Luke [Marks] on the far post run, but I guess I whipped it a little too much and with some luck it found the top right corner.”

Unfortunately, that would be the last time the Wildcats would be able to score.

The Wildcats played aggressively throughout the game, but maybe too aggressively for the officials. The Cats had 13 fouls called on them including a yellow card.

The Blues would score once more before the end of the half.

Once the second half started it was all Whitman. The Wildcat offense was unable to stop the Blues attack.

Whitman would score three more goals before the end of the game giving the Wildcats another loss to their record.  

Sophomore Dayton Farrow said the reason for the loss was “because we gave up in the second half. Players didn’t compete anymore after their third goal.”

After the loss the Wildcats kept their eyes on their next challenge, which came in the form of Whitworth. A team that the men’s soccer team had not beaten since 2003.

However, history did not repeat itself on Sept. 30 when this years men’s team took the field.

Farrow scored first taking a shot off a rebound from a deflected throw in. The Wildcats were able to hold on to that lead into half-time.

In the second half the Whitworth kept the game competitive. Whitworth took 20 shots compared to Linfield’s 9.

Even though the ‘Cats did not take as many shots, they made the shots they did take matter. That was evident when junior Malachi Stalberg scored on a pass by junior Isaias Flores.

With that goal the Wildcats got their first conference win and broke a 15 year streak of losses.

Sophomore goalie Cameron Perron played an important part of the victory by keeping the ball out of the net with a total of 11 saves.

“The win against Whitworth meant alot to the team especially the upperclassmen.”  We had not won a league game all last season and it was happiest I’ve seen the guys,” Stalberg said.

The Wildcats lost against Willamette 2-3 on Saturday, Oct. 6. The ‘Cats will go to Spokane to face Whitworth again at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 13.