ARCATA, Calif. -- Talk about your heart-stoppers. Azusa Pacific's Ian Liebbrandt scored his fifth goal of the season on a penalty kick in the final 2 minutes of play to lift unranked Azusa Pacific to a thrilling 2-1 victory over the NAIA's No. 9-ranked Simon Fraser (B.C.) at Humboldt State in Arcata, Calif.
The win is the Cougars' fourth in a row and third on a week-long road trip to Northern California. The Cougars previously defeated NAIA Region II rival Notre Dame de Namur, 4-0, on the Argonauts home field Wednesday afternoon, and they knocked off Concordia (Ore.), 2-1, yesterday.
With the game tied 1-1 and seemingly headed for overtime, Richie Craven was blatantly brought down in the box by Simon Fraser GK Raegyn Hall, who was whistled for a penalty in the 88th minute. Leibbrandt then easily tucked the ball into the net to seal the win for the Cougars.
The Clan jumped on the board in the 17th minute on a free kick. Kevin Crouch headed in a Marius Lundhaug service to the far post to give SFU a 1-0 lead.
However, just 10 minutes later, the Cougars got the equalizer when freshman Daniel Kari received a through ball from Chandler Harris and put it in the net to deadlock the game at 1-1 in the 30th minute.
The Cougars outshot the Clan, 18-12, and sophomore Julian Cottrell collected 4 saves to pick up the win.
Azusa Pacific is now 5-2-0 on the season. Simon Fraser drops to 3-2.
