Hishmeh Nets Sixth Goal of Season in 2-1 Win Over Puget Sound

By Mark Colachico, Interim Assistant Athletics Communications Director

SALEM, ORE. -- Junior Yazan Hishmeh (Jr., F, Ventura, CA/Saint Bonaventure HS) scored his second straight game-winner at 79:19 to help Willamette University's men's soccer team defeat the University of Puget Sound (Wash.), 2-1, Saturday at Sparks Field.

With the win, Willamette improves to 5-4-0 overall and 2-1-0 in Northwest Conference games. Meanwhile, Puget Sound falls to 5-3-1 overall and 2-1-0 in NWC contests.

"It feels good anytime you get a win," said Willamette's fourth-year Head Coach Lloyd Fobi. "UPS won our conference last year and (Head Coach Reece Olney) has a handful of guys back that played last year on that championship team. Whenever you are able to play the defending conference champions and pull that result, you are happy. I feel that we are starting to come into our own even though there is still room for improvement, but anytime you get a win at home especially in the conference opener, you take it and move on."

During the opening 45 minutes, neither team could find the back of the net resulting in a scoreless tie at halftime with both sides registering six shots.

Willamette broke the 0-0 tie when Garrett Ross (Jr., F, Pacific Palisades, CA/Oakwood Secondary) redirected a pass from Tyler Yates (Jr., F, Kailua-Kona, HI/Kealakehe HS) past a diving UPS keeper for his second score of the year at 51:03. The scoring play began with Yates dribbling down the far sideline before cutting back into the middle of the field and unleashing a shot that bounced off Puget Sound's keeper before being redirected by Ross for the go-ahead goal.

Less than eight minutes later, Puget Sound scored the equalizer on a header by Connor LaFerriere at 58:58 off an assist by Landon Gauthier. The game-tying goal came via a free kick along the far sideline by Gauthier that found the head of LaFerriere for his first goal of the season from eight yards out.

In a back-and-forth game over the next 20 minutes, Hishmeh would capitalize on a long pass at the midfield stripe where he dribbled through a trio of Logger defenders before unleashing a rifle shot into the upper right corner for the game-winner at 79:19. Hishmeh's goal came after he dribbled the ball for over 50 yards before unloading on a 12-yard shot that ended up in the back of the net for the game-winner.

On his goal, Hishmeh said, "I turned, did not see anyone there and I knew that I could beat my man that was marking me and the other guys just did not step and I scored a goal. It's pretty nice."

Over the past four games, Hishmeh has scored a team-leading six goals that includes a pair of game-winners. When asked about his scoring streak, Hishmeh stated, "The difference this year is my drive and want to score. Last year, as a sophomore, I was still an underclassman and did not know how to play with my teammates. Now that I'm looking for my teammates, I'm getting my chances and getting them in."

Following Hishmeh's goal, Puget Sound pushed its offense forward resulting in three corner kicks by Gauthier and three shots with two coming from Stewart Miller and another by Sam Zisette in the final six-plus minutes. Fortunately for the Bearcats, neither of the Loggers' shots found the back of the net with none being on-target.

Willamette'sgoalkeeper Braydon Calder (Jr., GK, Philomath, OR/Philomath HS) registered his fifth win of the season behind a game-high seven saves, while Puget Sound's Nathan King suffered the loss despite making five saves for the Loggers.

When asked to compare the two halves, Fobi said, "It was a tale of two halves, as we were a bit asleep to start and did not stick to the game plan that we wanted to come out with, but we trusted the guys. They found themselves in the second half and picked up a rhythm and moved from there."

Overall, Puget Sound collected three more shots (15-to-12) than Willamette with the Loggers also earning seven more corner kicks (11-to-4) that included a 5-to-1 advantage in the second half. The Bearcats were whistled for 15 fouls versus UPS's eight, while Puget Sound was called offsides four times compared to Willamette's one.

Willamette will return to action tomorrow - Sunday, Sept. 28 - against conference-leading Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.). Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. (PDT) on Sparks Field in Salem.

Looking forward to tomorrow's match-up with PLU, Fobi said, "(Head Coach) John (Yorke) does a very good job with his group. Pacific Lutheran is going to play really good soccer and its going to be a very entertaining game. When I first took this job, John was one of the first guys to reach out to me so I have a lot of respect for him, his group, and what they are going to do.

"We are going to focus on ourselves and truly try to establish a rhythm early. We understand that if we establish our rhythm early that we are very unstoppable. Our rhythm comes when we move the ball efficiently and get into the thirds that we want to be in. It is going to be a great game because in the first four games of conference, everyone is battling for that top spot and we are going to try and go out there and get the win."