BURNABY. – Niko Papakyriakopoulos scored from a free kick with 90 seconds remaining to lift SFU to a 1-0 win over Northwest Nazarene in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game that began on Thursday and finished Friday evening.

Papakyriakopoulos scored from a central position at the edge of the box, sending a left-footed strike over the wall and into the right corner of the goal. NNU goal keeper Sawyer Price had no play on the ball.

SFU earned the free kick after Justus Meier was grabbed on the arm as he raced past defender Caden Seyler to run on to a ball and take a clear path to the goal. Seyler was yellow-carded on the play.

With captain Rahid Rahiem and Papakyriakopoulos standing over the ball, Rahiem stutter- stepped towards the ball to deceive the wall before Papakyriakopoulos quickly stepped forward with a strike that delivered an SFU victory. It was his second goal of the season.

With the win SFU stayed in contention for the conference championship with a 4-2 GNAC record, 7-5 overall. SFU is tied with Western Washington but trails nationally-ranked Seattle Pacific (4-1 GNAC, 10-2-0 overall). NNU falls to 3-3 in GNAC play, dropping to fourth in the conference standings with four matches remaining in the regular season. 

The game was originally supposed to be played on Thursday night, and the two teams did end up playing about 43 scoreless minutes, but after multiple delays due to dense fog, the decision was made to call it a night and play a full 90 minutes on Friday.

After an uneventful first half, SFU came in waves at the Nighthawks in the second period. In the 66th minute, Connor Glennon sent a header off the post on a beautifully executed set piece. From 40 yards on the right wing, Papakyriakopoulos sent a cross to the short side of the box where Ali Zohar flicked it with his head to the far post. Glennon moved free of a defender and directed the ball off his head to the left side of the goal but it hit the post.

In the final minutes prior to the goal, Papakyriakopoulos sent a cross into the penalty area where Meier took it cleanly off his chest with space but couldn't get a foot on it and the ball was cleared.

The Nighthawks thought they won it, in the 88th minute, off a long throw-in but the forwards were ruled offside after the ball was scored. After that SFU moved quickly down field where Meier was fouled at the edge of the box.

SFU out-shot the Nighthawks 20-4 with 11 of those shots on target, although clean looks and dangerous chances were difficult to achieve as the Nighthawks defended in numbers.

Nine yellow cards were assessed with three going to SFU.

SFU will go at it again in just over 24 hours after the conclusion of today's game, taking on Saint Martin's at 7:00 pm on Saturday night at SFU Stadium.

--@SFU_Athletics--