Women’s soccer wins second game in a row, while the men tie at home and still seek their first win
Women’s Soccer
The Azusa Pacific Women’s soccer team started and finished their game strong against Chaminade, leaving the Silverswords scoreless in a 4-0 victory.
“After preseason, that next Monday morning at practice, we decided that we were going to refuse to lose. We’re going to put everything we have when we are out on the field,” junior defender Casey Thompson said.
It did not take long for senior forward Katelyn Rogers to score the Cougars’ first goal within the first seven minutes of the game. Senior midfielder Stephanie Lossau assisted the goal. After that goal, the Cougars were not able to score again until the second half.
“At halftime, we knew we had to pick it up and keep scoring. We wanted to make sure that we were forcing mistakes from Chaminade and keeping the ball in their half and away from our defenders,” Thompson said.
The next three goals came together back-to-back-to-back. It only took another seven and half minutes in the second half for the second goal to be scored accidentally by a Chaminade player who was trying to clear the ball, but ended up letting it go into their own net
Once again, Lossau and Rogers paired up to knock in APU’s third goal. This time it was Rogers with the assist to Lossau.
With just ten minutes left on the clock, junior midfielder Kellie Yoshihara scored the final goal for the Cougars and senior midfielder Kelsey Lindor had the assist.
The APU Women’s soccer team is now 2-0 in PacWest play after having a rough start to the preseason, finishing it 0-3. The Cougars were able to earn their first win of conference after defeating Point Loma a few days earlier, and now stand at an overall record of 2-3.
“I told the girls this week, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is ‘carpe diem.’ We are going to seize the day, and this was their day,” head coach Don Lawrence said.
The Cougars took on Hawai’i Hilo at home on Tuesday, and next up will be the Concordia Eagles Thursday evening.
Men’s Soccer
The APU men’s soccer team tied 1-1 with Chaminade during the Cougars’ second matchup of conference play. The Cougars took it all the way to two overtimes, but could not find a way to recover.
It was the 16th minute of regulation that Chaminade scored its first goal of the night from Tyler Braunthal. Braunthal was just able to find the upper left corner of the goal all the way from 30 yards out.
The Cougars had an all-season high of nine offside fouls. Chaminade was visibly playing with a lot of pressure on the Cougars, moving their defenders way past half-field.
“They were playing a high line defensively and depending on the other team’s tactics, you have to be able to adjust, and as much as we are a possession style team, we want variety in how we attack teams,” head coach Dave Blomquist said. “Once we recognized their style of play, we tried to play the ball in behind their defense. We were successful in our passes but just not getting goals out of those passes.”
It was not until the second half that sophomore midfielder Rene Santos drew the foul, which ultimately led to senior forward Kaleb Armbrust knocking the penalty kick in to tie the game at one goal apiece.
“We moved the ball well in our back four and in our midfielders. We were a moment away,” Blomquist said.
The Cougars are now 0-5-1 in season play and 0-1-1 in conference play. Blomquist is two games away from winning his 100th career game as head coach of APU’s men’s soccer team.
The Cougars only had a few days of rest before they took on Hawai’i Hilo. Next, the men’s soccer team travels to Concordia to take on the Eagles.