Warriors clinch home field advantage with win over Raiders

October 22, 2005

BOX SCORE

SALEM, Ore. – In her final regular season home game in a Warrior uniform, senior Sarah Officer (Steilacoom, Wash.) guided Corban to a 2-0 win over Southern Oregon on Saturday afternoon helping the Warriors clinch home field advantage for the 1st round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference playoffs.

Along with Officer (pictured right), five other players – seniors Danae Peirce (Olympia, Wash.), Katie Casebeer (Jacksonville, Ore.), Meghan Cruz (Vancouver, Wash.), and Kari Swenson (Fallon, Nev.), along with junior Amy Ramos (North Bend, Ore.) – were playing in their final regular season home match in Corban navy and gold.

The scoring began in the 26th minute when sophomore Megan Waunch (Tumwater, Wash.) scored her 3rd goal of the weekend off a combo assist from Officer and freshman Amber Wihtol (Medford, Ore.).  Officer took the game’s second corner kick and lofted it towards the far post where Wihtol flick a header onto Waunch, who proceeded to rifle home what would be the game-winning goal.

With 13:35 remaining on the first half clock, junior goalkeeper and Cascade Collegiate Conference Player of the Week Kim Mendenhall (Windsor, Calif.) made a game-clinching save when she went one-on-one with SOU’s Kara Bradach and denied the Raiders’ lone scoring threat via a dive to her right.  Mendenhall covered up the ball not allowing any other Raiders to collect a would-be loose ball and find an open net.

Following a close first half, Corban came out and dominated the final 45 minutes thanks to an 11-0 advantage in total shots.

Officer scored the game’s final goal in the 78th minute on a combo assist from sophomore Allison Buswell (Salem, Ore.) and Wihtol.  Officer took a long pass from Buswell and lofted a shot from 20 yards out over the Raiders’ outstretched keeper and into the middle of the net for her 7th goal of the season.

Mendenhall played the entire game and recorded 2 saves on the way to her 4th shutout of the season.  SOU’s Melanie Hopkins recorded a game-high 7 saves in the loss.

With the win, Corban improves to 9-7-2 overall, 7-5 in CCC play.  Southern Oregon falls to 7-9-1 overall, 5-6-1 in CCC play.  The Warriors are next in action on Wednesday, October 26th, when they host The Evergreen State College in the 1st round of CCC playoffs beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Warrior Field.