DURANGO, Colo. - Cole Kartchner scored his first goal of the season in the 28th-minute to put Westminster men's soccer (3-5) ahead in a 2-1 win over Fort Lewis College (3-3-1) on Sunday at Dirks Field.
Fort Lewis finished the match with a 10-5 advantage in shots on net, but Kartchner was the only player on the field to find the net during the run of play in Westminster's third non-conference win of the season.
Fort Lewis went ahead, 1-0, when Legendre Gabriel converted a 10th-minute penalty kick to give the Sky Hawks the early advantage.
Max Bingman was brought down inside of the Sky Hawks penalty area in the 25th-minute and
Kaden Amano converted the ensuing penalty kick with a hesitation move on keeper, Andres Hernandez, to even the match at 1-1.
Westminster only saw three total shots in the first 45, but Kartchner saw a small glimpse of space and took it to help the Griffins gain the advantage less than than four minutes after Amano's equalizing penalty. Kartchner beat his defender one-on-one and smashed a shot into the bottom left corner of the net from the edge of the 18-yard-box to put Westminster ahead, 2-1.
Fort Lewis saw nine second-half shots, but
Ian Rose's clean sheet was never in doubt as Westminster kept the Sky Hawks' attack scoreless in the second frame, en route to a 2-1 win.
Westminster will begin conference play next week as it travels to take on UCCS on Fri., Oct. 1, at 1:30 p.m. (MDT).
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