SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- It's been a little while since Azusa Pacific has beaten Westmont, so it's likely that Cougar head coach Jason Surrell and his team may enjoy this one for some time.
Especially in light of what could have been had they not won this one.
In danger of suffering their second straight defeat, which would have been instant banishment from the NAIA's Top 10, the No. 2-ranked Cougars overcame a sluggish first half and exploded with a pair of goals just a minute and half apart to get a 2-0 win over the 3-time defending NAIA champions Saturday in Santa Barbara.
"The first half was ugly, disgusting and nasty," said Surrell. "The second half, though, was as gutty of a performance you're going to see. Our girls grinded this one out and it paid off. It definitely wasn't pretty, but we'll take this one."
The win is the Cougars first over the Warriors since a 2-0 win in 2001 snapping their 4-game losing skid to the Warriors. It is also the Cougars first win in Santa Barbara since their 1998 national championship season.
With the win, the Cougars improve to 11-1-1 overall, 7-1-0 GSAC and stay in the race for the GSAC title, trailing No. 7 Biola by one game with 2 to play. The Warriors, however, fall to 8-6-1, 5-2-1 and now have no chance to repeat as conference champs. The 6 losses are their most since 1995.
Neither team was able to generate anything in the first 45 minutes, so much so that it prompted Surrell to mix up his line-up. He went to the bench and inserted reserve Mari Kasamoto, who has seen time in just 7 games this year, into the attack at the start of the second half. Not too much later he placed another reserve, Julie Fennel, into the mix. While neither got into the scoring column, they did begin to initiate the offensive flow for the Cougars.
As a result, the Cougars struck gold in the 64th minute. Shannon Coe fed Stephanie Weber, who beat Emalia Cornwell high and into the corner for a 1-0 Cougar lead. It was Weber's fourth goal of the season, which matches her previous career total coming into the season.
Not even 2 minutes later, the Cougars doubled their lead. Coe fired a free kick off the crossbar and before Westmont could clear it from the box, Stephanie Bays hammered home the rebound for her seventh goal of the season.
"Mari and Julie were sparkplugs for us today," said Surrell. "They both came into a big game and produced. The box score doesn't show it, but they did so much for us in terms of our flow. We had nothing going for us offensively until they came onto the field."
The Warriors had a few chances in the final minutes, including a barrage of corner kicks, but Cougar GK Jill Colfer and her defensive mates, led by Lauren Skelte, were up to the task thwarting away any hope.
"Lauren was outstanding in the back for the second straight game," said Surrell. "If she can keep it up the rest of the way, we'll continue to have success. Her play has been big for us allowing us to give different looks with our attack."
The Cougars, who have all but wrapped up an NAIA Region II playoff berth, are now playing for seeding. They have 2 games left, including Wednesday's at Hope International at 3 p.m. with hopes of earning a top 2 seed and earning a first-round bye.
