Riley Buerk | Freelance Writer

The men’s soccer game on Oct. 13, ended with Western Oregon University getting their first win of the year, 2-1, over Portland State University. The first half was a defensive battle, and both teams went into halftime with zeroes on the scoreboard.  

Western has been working on defending more as a unit, according to head coach Mark Jorgenson.

“We’ve been working on our shape, and just defending as a unit rather than individually and there weren’t, maybe a couple dodgy moments, but much better than last week. We didn’t really have too much panic tonight, which was nice to see,” said Jorgenson.

The game got off to a late start after only a few of the PSU players showed up before 6 p.m. and most of them arriving shortly after six. This caused a 15 minute delay in start time.

The scoring opened up 15 minutes into the second half with number Tatsuya Koba for Western scoring off a deep pass from first-year left back Brent Walsh. In the 27th minute, Portland State tied the game up off a mistake by Western’s defense. The Wolves kicked the ball into an open middle field and the goalie had to run up to try and get the ball, which left the goal wide open for Portland State to score. This was the only major mistake the defense made.

However, this was the best game for the defense this year.

“We really worked well as a team. It’s a lot less stressful when we’re compact and moving as a unit instead of leaving a bunch of windows and open gaps,” said Walsh.

Western took the lead for good with 12 minutes left after striker Brandon Cortez managed to put a goal in past the goalie.

“It feels awesome to finally get a win, finally get a goal, been struggling with that all year and I feel like our team is finally coming together,” said Cortez.

Western Oregon travels to Corvallis on Oct. 21 to take on the Oregon State Beavers, and try and get a winning streak going.

Contact the author at rbuerk17@wou.edu