Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho (Oct. 24) -- Freshman Kelsy Villegas (Graham/Graham-Kapowsin HS) had her second two-goal match of the season, including her first career penalty-kick goal, and senior Amber Easterbrook (Kent/Kentwood HS) made three saves in posting her 20th career shutout as the Central Washington women's soccer team rolled to a 4-0 victory over host Northwest Nazarene on Saturday afternoon.

The win snapped a two-match losing streak for CWU, which is now 6-9-1 overall and 3-5-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. Northwest Nazarene fell to 3-9-3 overall and 1-7-0 in conference counters.

Villegas, who is now the team's goal-scoring leader with five tallies on the year, converted a penalty kick at the 41st minute and then added the first of two late-game insurance goals in the final 10 minutes. On her second tally, she headed a ball in from 12 yards out that had been served in by junior Kaycie Hutchins (Port Orchard/Bellarmine Prep) at the 81st minute. Hutchins was credited with her team-leading seventh assist of the season on the play.

"We bounced back very well," said CWU head coach Michael Farrand, referring to his team's win following a 2-1 loss in its last outing versus Saint Martin's last Saturday in Ellensburg. "We had lots of good action and lots of good opportunities to score, including creating corner kick opportunities."

Central had nine corner kicks in the match, including five in the first half. The Wildcats scored their first goal immediately following a corner at the 23rd minute, as sophomore Serena Tomaso (Enumclaw) served a ball in to sophomore Brittany Franks (Yakima/West Valley HS) to give CWU a 1-0 lead. The margin reached two goals after freshman Carson McKole (Oak Harbor) had a great individual move to beat a girl inside and create a foul that was called inside the penalty box. Villegas took the ensuing penalty kick and scored past Tanya Zickefoose to make it a 2-0 halftime score.

Easterbrook made two of her three saves for the match in the second half, and she stopped the Crusaders' Marie Smith on a penalty kick in the final four minutes to preserve the shutout.

"We were struggling a bit to start the second half," Farrand said, "but we did a good job to keep the shutout intact. Amber made an amazing save on the penalty kick."

The final goal of the match was an unassisted tally by McKole at the 88th minute.

Central Washington, which also dominated the Crusaders statistically in a 2-0 win in Ellensburg on Oct. 10, outshot Northwest Nazarene 18-5 in Saturday's win. The Wildcats finished with a 9-4 edge in corner kicks, and similarly were whistled for nine fouls to the Crusaders' four. Three Wildcats -- Franks, Villegas, and junior Ellie Eckroth (Auburn/Auburn Mountainview HS) -- led a balanced attack with three shots each.

The Wildcats play their final home match of the season next Saturday (Oct. 31), taking on fourth-ranked Seattle Pacific in a noon kickoff on Senior Day. CWU then closes out the year with away matches against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's on Nov. 4 and 7, respectively.