By Malika Andrews |
The Pilots fell to the University of Washington on Saturday, Sept. 27 in the 49th second of overtime.
After a first half with no shots on goal, UW forward, Darwin Jones, crossed the ball from the left end line to forward teammate, Josh Heard, in the 52nd minute of play. Heard shot the ball into the top left corner of the goal to put the Huskies up 1-0.
Pilots’ midfielder, Eddie Sanchez, responded to UW in the 71st minute of play. With an assist from Michael Escobar, Sanchez buried the ball into the top right corner of the goal from 25 feet out. This tied up the game 1-1.
As tension rose, the game became more physical. Three Portland players and three Washington players earned yellow cards. In this point of play, Head Coach Bill Irwin expected the game to reach this level of intense physicality, and thought it was evenly matched.
“I think when we play UW, it is always a physical game,” Irwin said. “The referee deemed that they [the yellow cards] were necessary, and that is one of the things we have to put up with. I felt maybe there should have been a few more. All we want is consistency.”
While the Pilots did not come out on top, freshman goalkeeper, Paul Christensen made six impressive saves, including stopping a penalty kick.
“I was pretty confident I was going to save it,” Christensen said. “I just have to stay calm and take it one shot at a time. We fought hard tonight - tough way to end it - but we fought hard, so go away with that and be happy with that.”
Malika Andrews is a Sports Reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at andrewsm17@up.edu or on Twitter @malika_andrews.
