LACEY, WA – The Saint Martin's men's soccer team (0-6-1, 0-1 GNAC) brought some offensive firepower to the field on Thursday afternoon, but two marvelous goals fell on deaf ears as the Saints lost to No. 20 Western Washington University (5-0-3, 1-0 GNAC) by a score of 5-2.
 
The Vikings opened the scoring in the 14^th minute when a good cross skipped across the front of the cage eventually finding the foot of Kaydin Wall who stabbed it in. The response from Saint Martin's came just eight minutes later when a midfield steal was pushed forward to Ethan Jud who kicked it back to Jay Mendoza. Mendoza looked ahead and saw a streaking Arjun Gill down the left flank, Gill had a nifty cut inside then finessed a beautiful finished into the upper-right corner to square the game at one. Barely giving the Saints a chance to breathe, WWU responded in the 26^th with a goal to make it 2-1. Right before halftime, a mistake led to another Western Washington goal, and it was 3-1 at the break.
 
The second for the hosts came in the 59^th when Diego Andrade started a strong run down the right sideline, took some contact, kept going and pushed the ball forward for a nifty one-two with Caden Martin. Martin dropped a nice through ball back to Andrade who looped a ball into the box that found the head of Jud. Jud launched at the floating orb and placed it perfectly on the inside of the post for a crucial Saints goal. The stellar goal wouldn't lead to more offense, though, and the Saints ended up falling 5-2 on their home turf.
 
The Saints head to Idaho Saturday where they'll take on the Nighthawks of Northwest Nazarene (4-1-1). Kickoff will be at 1 PM at NNU Soccer Field.