Autumn Yturbe scored twice to lead Northwest Nazarene (3-3-0, 1-1-0) to a 2-0 victory over Saint Martin's (0-4-2, 0-2-0) Saturday afternoon at Lacey.
In another GNAC afternoon game, Montana State Billings (4-1-1) and Western Oregon (2-2-2) battled to a 1-1 draw leaving both teams unbeaten (1-0-1) in conference play.
Seattle Pacific and Western Washington earned victories in evening games. The Falcons (5-1-0, 2-0-0) defeated Simon Fraser 2-0 to move into first-place in the GNAC with six points.
The Vikings (2-2-2, 1-1-0) leveled their records with a 1-0 home win against Central Washington.
Yturbe, who has a league-leading six goals, found the goal in both halves, first in the 40th minute when she dribbled in from the top of the box to beat SMU goalkeeper Gina Cardenas, and then again in the 64th minute, beating a Saint defender and pulling Cardenas out for the scoring strike.
"Leading 1-0 at the half, I thought we came out in the second and took care of the ball and played a much prettier second half," NNU head coach Jamie Lindvall said.
Crusader goalkeeper Tanya Zickefoose had seven saves in carving out the shutout, overcoming an 11-10 shot deficit and a 10-4 Saint Martin's corner kick advantage.
MSUB and Western Oregon traded first-half goals in their contest. Kymberly Witmer gave WOU the early lead in the 12th minute.
MSUB, however, got the equalizer at 35:33 as Heidi Greenback converted a goal off an assist from Whitney Siler.
WOU had twice as many shots (14-7) in the contest. MSUB goalie Danielle Gordon had seven saves and WOU keeper Brittney Rigtrup had three.
Megan Lindsay and Taylor Sawyer each scored goals in Seattle Pacific's win at Terry Fox Field in Burnaby.
Goalkeeper Natalie Harold had two saves on just six total shots by Simon Fraser (1-3-0, 0-2-0) to earn her third shutout of the season.
SPU has reeled off four consecutive wins, keeping opponents off the board for the past 295 minutes, 54 seconds, dating back to a 6-1 home rout of Notre Dame de Namur on Sept. 8.
Lindsay snapped a scoreless tie less than four minutes into the second half when she found the goal with an unassisted strike for the 18th goal of her career.
Sawyer padded the lead to 2-0 midway through the 61st minute, scoring for the fifth time in her SPU career. That goal also was unassisted.
The Falcons more than doubled the Clan's six-shot total, finishing with 15. Of those, 12 were on frame: the two that went in, seven that were saved by Simon Fraser goalkeeper Amelia Ng, and three more that were cleared away by Clan defensive players.
Kelly Cates scored the game's lone goal in Western Washington's victory. It was the first goal for the senior midfielder since she notched one goal in her freshman season playing at Southern Oregon,
Cates, who also wore the captain's armband for the first time in place of injured defender Alicia Patten, scored in the 52nd minute, when her first-touch strike from 25 yards out floated into the upper left corner of the net.
“We had some people out of the lineup and needed others to step up,” said WWU coach Travis Connell . “Cates was captain tonight, she played well all around and also scored the goal.”
The Vikings had a massive 24-2 advantage in shots, including a 16-1 margin in the second half.
Central (2-2-2, 1-1-0) played most of the game with just 10 players as Hilary Franks received a red card in the 17th minute for fouling Megan Chapin as the last defender on a possible breakaway.
But the Wildcats still forged a possible chance to tie in the 88th minute. Forward Amy Pate rose in traffic to meet a cross from Carson McKole, but her firm header from 10 yards out was right at Western goalkeeper Jamie Arthurs.
