TACOMA, Washington – After splitting the home stand against Whitworth and Whitman last weekend, the Puget Sound men's soccer team is on the road this weekend to take on Willamette (Oct. 2) and Linfield (Oct. 3).
 
Babiak's heroics
Marko Babiak gave the Loggers a dramatic 1-0 over Whitworth (Sept. 25) when he scored the golden goal in the second overtime period. Babiak dribbled down the left side of the pitch, put a series of moves on his defender, and fired off a left-footed strike across the face of goal into the far-right lower corner. Against Whitman, the Blues got on the scoring sheet early in both halves, leading them to a 2-1 victory over the Loggers. 

'Minder Matheny
Puget Sound netminder Andrew Matheny has allowed just seven goals in seven games, and he has made 20 saves. Matheny made a season-high six saves in the win against Whitworth.
 
Close ones
Four of Puget Sound's last five games have been decided just one goal. The one outlier during that stretch is a 1-1 draw at Pacific. 

On target
The Loggers enter the weekend with an impressive 0.558 shots-on-goal percentage. Through the past 10 seasons, Puget Sound's best SOG% was .534 in 2013. So far this season Ryan Smith has put 76.5% of his shots on frame. 

It's been a while
The Loggers haven't played against Willamette and Linfield since 2019. Puget Sound split both games against Willamette, and won twice against the Wildcats.

Scouting Willamette (5-2, 3-1 NWC)
The Bearcats are coming off two victors last weekend against Pacific and George Fox. With the victories, Willamette is riding a three-game win streak as it sits third in the NWC standings. Willamette's last loss was Sept. 18 against Whitworth. Max Berner-Hays leads the team in scoring with three goals, while four other Bearcats have two goals, each. Willamette holds a 1.43 GAA. 

Scouting Linfield (1-7, 0-4 NWC)
The Wildcats come into this weekend sitting last in the conference standings with a record of 1-7 (0-4, NWC). On the season, Linfield has allowed 27 goals in eight games. On the other end of the pitch, the Wildcats have scored just seven times. Cesar Cruz-Espindola is the only Wildcat with multiple goals (2).