APU’s men and women’s soccer kicked it up to beat Hawaii Pacific this past weekend
Courtesy of APU Sports Information
Women’s Soccer
After a rough start to the season, APU women’s soccer team has responded well with three straight PacWest conference wins. Fresh off their 4-0 win against Notre Dame De Namur, the Cougars beat Hawai’i Pacific 2-1 on Saturday’s match up.
“Coming into every game at this point, our attitude is we refuse to lose. Winning puts us in our own destiny and we are able to control that compared to letting other people take control of what can happen to us,” junior midfielder Cara Scammon said.
The first goal was scored by the Sharks’ forward Ebony Madrid in the 18th minute of regulation which gave Hawai’i Pacific a 1-0 lead. The Cougars fought long and hard but were unsuccessful at scoring any goals within the first half of the game.
“There was no choice but to come back. We went out there, played our hearts out and came back within three minutes of the second half,” junior midfielder Kellie Yoshihara said.
Down one goal to start the second half, the Cougars came out ready to play against the Sharks. Within the first three minutes of the second half, the Cougars scored back-to-back goals. The first goal came within 30 seconds in the game from senior forward Katelyn Rodgers, tying the game at one, and scoring her fourth goal of the season.
Two minutes later, within the 48th minute of regulation, senior midfielder Stephanie Lossau took a nice shot towards the goal, scored and gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead. The Sharks would not be able to tie it up, leading to a Cougars win.
After this game, the APU women’s soccer team was able to keep their three game-winning streak alive. More impressively, it has been 18 games since the Cougars have last been beaten in PacWest play. APU is currently 6-3-2 overall and 6-0-2 in conference play.
The Cougars’ next match up is a against rival, California Baptist, who is now 6-1 in conference.
“Cal Baptist lost tonight against Fresno state, so that give us the incentive to take that number one spot,” head coach Don Lawrence said.
The Cougars will host the showdown against Cal Baptist at home on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 5 p.m..
Men’s Soccer
The APU men’s soccer team bounced back after their loss last week to Notre Dame de Namur. They defeated Hawai’i Pacific in the 109th minute in overtime with a final score of 3-2.
Within the 24th regulation minute, APU’s junior midfielder Aleksandar Pumpalovic scored the first goal off the game off a penalty kick. Only 20 minutes later, Hawai’i Pacific’s Lucas Libbra scored the next goal off of a loose ball to even out the score at one.
“Coming into the game, I was feeling good before and after our warm up. Everyone was switched on and ready to go and I think we proved how ready we were within the first 30 minutes of the game,” Pumpalovic said.
It was not until the second half where things started to heat up. The Sharks took the lead in the 56th regulation minute due to Josh Cuerten scoring a goal off of a penalty kick and giving the Sharks a 2-1 lead.
Six minutes later, Pumpalovic fired back and scored again off a penalty kick, tying the game at two. The game headed into overtime, where Pumpalovic eventually scored the winning goal in the 109th minute with the assistance of senior forward Kaleb Armbrust. With Pumpalovic leading the Cougars, it was his first time performing a hat-trick. This was the first Cougars hat-trick since last season, where then senior TIm Ogunniyi scored four goals against the Academy of Art.
“I scored my very first hat-trick tonight and hopefully not my last. It was a great team game and we deserved this win for all the hard work we have put in at practice,” Pumpalovic said.
Next up for the Cougars is California Baptist. With less than a week to prepare for this matchup, the Cougars are now 3-8-1 overall and 3-4-1 in conference, while CBU is currently 10-0-2 on the season.
“[Cal Baptist is] a great team. They play attacking style, very fast-paced. So we will do a few things defensively through the week to make sure we are ready for that. But most of all, we want to play our style and keep rolling from tonight,” head coach Dave Blomquist said.
The Cougars will host host the Lancers Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m..