MONMOUTH, Ore. -- Simon Fraser scored two second-half goals in less than two minutes to beat Western Oregon 2-0 and make the race for the GNAC Men's Soccer Championship a lot more interesting Thursday afternoon.

The game was scoreless until the 69^th minute when Mark Talisuna converted a penalty kick after a WOU player fouled him in the box. Less than two minutes later SFU's Alan Soto scored on the corner kick from Niko Papakyriakopoulos to make it 2-0 and seal the victory.

The win moved the Red Leafs to 9-5 overall and 6-3 in the GNAC with three games remaining. The conference championship is a three-horse race between SFU, Northwest Nazarene and Western Washington, who also won on Thursday. The Nighthawks lead the conference with a 7-2-1 record and 22 points with games against Western Washington (Nov. 3) and Seattle Pacific (Nov. 5) remaining. WWU is in second place at 7-2-0 and 21 points with three games left: SPU (Oct. 29), NNU (Nov. 3) and MSU Billings (Nov. 5).

SFU sits third but is still very much in the championship hunt. SFU plays its final road game Saturday at Saint Martin's (1PM) and then returns home for games against MSU Billings (Nov. 3) and Saint Martin's (Nov. 5) on Senior Night.

In Thursday's match, the Red Leafs outshot the Wolves 11-8 overall and 6-2 on shots on goal. SFU had nine corner kick opportunities compared to none for WOU.

Justyn Sandhu earned his fifth shutout of the season.

The first goal came at 68:45. Talisuna was taken down from behind in the penalty area after he intercepted a pass and raced in on goal from the wing. He was tackled about 10 yards from the goal. Talisuna used a stutter step and hit the ball lower left corner on the PK. The 'keeper dove right.

The second goal was scored at 70:25. Papakyriakopoulos sent the corner into the middle of the box and the ball appeared to careen off a back heel by Justus Meier through a crowd of players before Soto tapped it in far post.
 

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