AZUSA, Calif. -- Needing a win or tie, Point Loma Nazarene was playing for its playoff life, and it showed.
Already clinching at least a tie for the GSAC title, the NAIA's No. 3-ranked Azusa Pacific wasn't playing for its playoff life, and it showed.
The Sea Lions hammered a patchwork Cougar defense all afternoon and as a result got a 4-3 overtime win not only clinching a playoff spot but handing the Cougars their first loss of the season.
It is the Cougars first loss since a 2-1 setback Oct. 25, 2003 at Westmont. It snaps the Cougars' school-record 18-game unbeaten streak and drops them to 15-1-1 overall, 9-1 GSAC. Point Loma improves to 12-4-1, 6-3-1.
The Cougars will still at least share the GSAC title with Vanguard, but a Lion loss tonight to Biola will give the Cougars the title outright.
Playing without injured starters Phil Hoyt and Chandler Harris for the second straight game, the Cougar defense was leaky. In fact, the Cougars were even lucky just force overtime as the Sea Lions had several quality chances throughout the game.
"Our back 4 couldn't defend their front 2. Those guys are good, especially on this field," said Azusa Pacific head coach Phil Wolf. "We couldn't get it done. We didn't get the result. We were awful in the first half and were lucky to be down just one goal. I would've been happy with a draw, but I knew that we weren't going to get one. We were going to have to score first in the overtime, and we didn't."
Both teams surrendered leads—the Sea Lions give up 2. Seemingly having lost all momentum after giving up a late game-tying goal to the Cougars, the Sea Lions rebounded and continued their onslaught in the overtime and capitalized when Adam Sonney fed Derrick Thames with a ball down the right side of the box.
Thames ran onto the ball, beat Cougar GK Morgan Cathey and flicked over Cathey and into the open net for the game winner less than 4 minutes into the extra time.
The Sea Lions out-shot the Cougars, 17-8, including an 11-2 advantage in the opening period. However, just one goal came in the first 45 minutes—an own goal by the Cougars to give the Sea Lions a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute.
Struggling to get any type of flow at either end, the Cougars awoke from their slumber at the start of the second half and scored twice in a 7 minute span to take a 2-1 lead. Ian Leibbrandt cleaned up a loose ball in the box just 1:56 into the second half for his ninth of the season.
Andriy Budnyy then gave the Cougars their first lead in the 54th minute off a beautiful through ball down the middle from Skelly Kellar. Budnyy took the pass, set the ball on his left foot and beat Sea Lion GK Michael Gebhart to the far post.
Six minutes later, though, Point Loma Nazarene responded. In the 60th minute, Matthew Horak came onto a loose ball from about 20-yards out on the left side and rifled a shot inside the far post to tie the game at 2-2. Six minutes after that, Brian Thames gave the Sea Lions a 3-2 lead off an assist by Horak.
In the 74th minute, however, the Cougars tied it again. Budnyy sent a ball from the right side of the box all the way across and back up to Kellar, who drilled a shot with his left foot and into the net.
"We felt like we got the momentum back, but then we leaked 2 goals and it was gone," said Wolf. "Point Loma was able to do whatever they wanted to do. You're not going to beat anybody giving up 4 goals at home. We were trying to get blood out of a turnip."
The Cougars nearly had a chance to win it in the final seconds when Budnyy got loose in the box. A Sea Lion defender barely flicked the ball away from him, but he was still able to serve it back into the middle to Kolt Callway, whose shot sailed over the crossbar.
Both teams now await their next opponent as the NAIA Region II Playoff bracket will be released tomorrow. Despite the loss, the Cougars will still likely be the top seed but at worse will be the second seed and get a bye into the semifinals, which they would host, next Saturday.
