News Release Date:
Sunday, October 19

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Marc Nabelek made a great run to get behind the defense and Stephen Phillips used his left foot for a behind-the-back scoring strike to lift Whitman College to a 2-1 overtime victory over Willamette University Sunday afternoon at the Whitman Athletic Fields.

The triumph keeps Whitman in second place in the Northwest Conference with a 6-1-2 record (8-1-6 overall). Willamette is 1-7-1 and 2-10-1.

Whitman dominated the game from outset, outshooting the Bearcats 14-5 in a first half that nonetheless ended in a scoreless tie.

The Missionaries finally broke the ice in the 11th minute of the second half when brothers Greg and Stephen Phillips raced up opposite sides of the field to make connections on a perfectly time scoring play. Stephen crossed a pass to the right side of the box, where Greg elevated with the bounce of the ball to slam a 10-yard scoring shot past the keeper.

After two more Whitman shots, one of which Jasper Lipton crushed off the back of a Willamette defender, the Bearcats pieced together a nifty scoring play of their own to even the game at 1-1. Shielding a defender, Ivan Gutierrez fielded a long pass from Andrew Robinson on the right side of the Whitman box and sliced a 12-yard shot to the far post. It was Willamette's first shot on goal of the afternoon.

With the game back to square one, Stephen Phillips put on an offensive show down the stretch, creating and uncorking five shots over the final 25 minutes of regulation. He scrambled around a defender to get one of those shots from the left corner, scorching a bullet from eight yards that Willamette keeper Mark Bennet somehow batted away. 

Whitman opened the first 10-minute overtime session with a string of three corner kicks. Jordan Droppert and Cooper Crosby got their heads on two of those kicks, but one header was blocked and one sailed wide.

In the sixth minute of overtime, Willamette collected its first corner kick of the game and nearly cashed it in. Whitman keeper Brett Axelrod rose to punch the ball away but failed to make solid contact after losing the ball in sun. With the ball bouncing close to the goal line, defender Joe Johnson was the first to react, and he didn't miss, pounding the ball well up field.

With less than three minutes left in the first OT and a second overtime looming, Nabelek triggered the game-winning play from the left side of the box, dribbling around a defender and delivering  a pass on the money to Stephen Phillips just outside the goal. Phillips got his left foot on the ball and flicked it around his back, scoring from one yard out. 

Of the seven shots Phillips took on the day, it was by far the shortest. "Of all the chances Stephen had, that was the one he scored on," Whitman coach Mike Washington said. "That was a great run by Marc Nabelek. He gets a lot of the credit for that one."

For the game, Whitman enjoyed a 26-12 shot advantage, which included a 9-4 bulge in shots on goal. The Missionaries also took 14 corner kicks to just one for the Bearcats. Willamette's Bennett, under pressure most of the game, made seven saves to keep the Bearcats close.

Lipton, Droppert and Jason Shon each took four shots for Whitman. Lipton put three of his on goal.

Sam Hodder with four shots and Gutierrez with three led the Willamette offense. 

Whitman makes its final road trip of the season next weekend, playing Saturday at Puget Sound and Sunday at Pacific Lutheran. Both games start at 2:30 p.m.

The Willamette men play just one game next weekend, hosting George Fox at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Box score

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CONTACT: Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
509 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu