AZUSA, Calif. -- They were carpool buddies getting a leg up on the traffic on the highway of the GSAC race. Vanguard and Azusa Pacific were squared up as the last remaining unbeatens heading into today's crucial GSAC match in Azusa.
Both were sitting shotgun with 5-0 records, but when rush hour ended and the dust settled, it was the Cougars who had taken the keys to the car.
The NAIA's No. 3-ranked Azusa Pacific scored 3 unanswered goals in a 17-minute span and erased a 2-goal deficit to get a key come-from-behind 3-2 Golden State Athletic Conference win over Vanguard.
The win keeps the Cougars unbeaten at 12-0-1, 6-0 GSAC and squarely puts them in the driver's seat for their first GSAC title since 2001. For the first time this season, the Cougars have sole possession of the GSAC lead. Vanguard drops to 11-4 overall, and suffers its first GSAC loss to fall to 5-1.
"This was a big one for us," said Azusa Pacific head coach Phil Wolf. "We've never faced a deficit like that so it showed the spirit of these guys to come back from that. We know we can score goals in a hurry so we always feel like we're in the game."
Playing with the fire of a team that needed to win this one, Vanguard scored twice in a 7-minute span to take a 2-0 lead late in the first half and stunning the Cougars. The first goal came in the 26th minute on an own goal when a Cougar defender accidentally re-directed a lofted ball into the goal.
In the 33rd minute, though, the Lions added to the lead. The Cougars were whistled for one of their 19 fouls at the top of the box just in front of the left post. Vanguard reserve Jose Hernandez took the ensuing free kick and bent the ball over the wall and inside the near post for what seemed like an insurmountable 2-0 Lion lead.
The second goal should've and could've been a back-breaker on 2 fronts as the Cougars have never had a 2-goal deficit this year and the Lion defense, paced by GK Tommaso Bianchi, had yet to surrender a single goal in its first 5 GSAC games.
But, 6 minutes after Vanguard took its 2-goal advantage; the Cougars got a free kick of their own from 20 yards out. Andriy Budnyy took the kick and skidded a rocket through the wall and across the grass that rebounded off Bianchi to a waiting Phil Hoyt, who hammered home rebound for his first goal of the year in the 39th minute.
Not to be outdone and with a second chance just 2 minutes after Hoyt's goal, Budnyy had another free kick, this time from the other side of the field and just outside the box. Budnyy capitalized on this chance and sent an identical ball along the ground and past a diving Bianchi to the far post into the net to send the game to halftime tied at 2-2.
Seven minutes into the second half, Budnyy broke loose down the left side. He received a chip pass over the defense from Hoyt, touched it once, then beat a diving Bianchi to his left and into the far post net for a 3-2 Cougar lead.
From the opening whistle, it seemed as if it were going to be "one of those days" as Budnyy blasted a ball from the left side that grazed off the crossbar. Just minutes after that, the Lions got the own goal and then quickly took a 2-0 lead.
But the Cougars steadied and rebounded for one of their more impressive wins of the season. Morgan Cathey returned to the field for the first time in nearly 2 weeks and made 6 saves, including 2 key ones late in the game.
"Morgan was absolutely solid today," said Wolf. "He's done nothing but give us solid performance after solid performance after solid performance all season. You have to have a good keeper to be successful, and we have one."
