ASHLAND – Playing as an NAIA Top 25 team for the first time, Southern Oregon looked every bit the part in a 5-0 win against Northwest (Wash.) on Friday at Raider Stadium.
The 24th-ranked Raiders (11-2-1 overall, 8-0-1 Cascade Conference) took the wind out of the Eagles' sails early and poured on four goals in the first half with some of their prettiest plays of the season. After
Esteban Castaneda stepped in front of a ball keeper Agazi Birkner intended to clear and kicked it in from 15 yards out just 68 seconds into the match, the rout was on.
Carlos Magana's sixth goal of the season, in the 23rd minute, was an awkward-angled bicycle kick just off end the line from left of the goal, lined inside the right post. Ten minutes later,
Luis Aguilar's neatly-placed corner kick set up a
Zak Woolley header. And three minutes after that, Woolley sent a throw-in from midfield through the defense for
Brendan Allen to retrieve in space, and Allen did the rest for his sixth goal.
Gonzalo Garcia added the final score in the 66th minute, his first of the year, off another Aguilar corner that set up a long strike near the sideline.
The Eagles fell to 3-5-3 and 2-4-2.
During the Raiders' team-record 12-game unbeaten streak, they've won 11 times and turned in nine clean sheets. In the latest, keeper
Wyatt Zabinski didn't need to make a single save as SOU out-shot Northwest by a 19-3 margin.
Elsewhere in the CCC, No. 15 Corban (7-0-1 CCC) kept pace with the Raiders by scoring a critical 2-0 win at No. 11 Rocky Mountain (6-2 CCC), which dropped seven points back of SOU.
The Raiders will be home again at 5 p.m. Saturday to face Evergreen (7-2-2, 4-2-2).
