Nampa, Idaho – The University of Jamestown men's soccer team ran into a defensive buzzsaw getting shutout, 2-0, by Northwest Nazarene University as they played their first future-GNAC opponent on the road Saturday.
The Jimmies move to 1-4-3 on the season. Northwest Nazarene gets up to 6-1-3 after their fourth straight win.
In the third minute,
Joshua Jackson got himself free for a shot just outside of the top left corner of the Northwest Nazarene box, but it was out left.
The Jimmies fended off a couple of corner kicks from the Nighthawks, but they eventually conceded in the 15
th minute as Jim Wagenaar got NNU on the board off a shot about eight yards out from the net.
Valon Ismaili made his first save of the night in the 21
st minute, but the Jimmies were not able to get much brewing offensively in terms of shots to give their backstop some goal support.
Kayden Zenk and
Kai Yoshida each had off-target shots the remainder of the half with both being quite some distance away from the net.
Ismaili made another save on a long shot attempt with nine seconds left and the first half score ended at 1-0 in favor of the home team. NNU had three shots on goal while UJ did not have any. The Nighthawks had five corner kicks.
Jamestown had their first crack at a corner kick in the 50
th minute but got nothing out of it. Less than two minutes later, the Nighthawks got their second goal of the afternoon off of the foot of Caleb Putney, one of the best players in the GNAC.
Now down 2-0, the Jimmies needed a response but did not get the necessary offense. In the 61
st minute,
Justin Junaid had a deep shot from about 30 yards out but this was blocked away.
Neither side had another shot on net the rest of the way, and the contest ended 2-0 with the Jimmies dropping their first of six games against GNAC opponents.
Jamestown failed to test NNU netminder Elijah Brockl as they never recorded a shot on frame. Ismaili had three saves on five shots faced. Northwest Nazarene had 14 total shots and UJ four while each team had four corner kicks in the second half with game totals 9-4 in favor of the Nighthawks.
UJ will look to get back into the win column when they play one of their former GPAC opponents, the Briar Cliff Chargers, down in Iowa on Wednesday, September 30 at 1 p.m.
