AZUSA, Calif.. – The NAIA's No. 5-ranked Azusa Pacific scored a pair of goals in each half to cruise to a 4-0 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over Point Loma Nazarene in both teams' final regular-season game of the campaign.
Four different Cougars scored goals, including freshman standout Randie Massro, who also assisted on Azusa Pacific's first 2 scores.
The Cougars wasted little time getting on the board. Less than 7 minutes into the game, Mari Kasamoto scored her second goal in as many games, knocking in a rebound of a Shannon Coe shot that Point Loma keeper Lauren Flower originally stopped. Kasamoto's goal, which ironically was not only her second goal of the week but also her second of the season and of her career, was all Azusa Pacific needed.
Still, they added 3 more counters, the second coming on Stephanie Weber's fifth goal of the season, a soft 10-yard shot that slid under the arms of a stretched-out Flower and just inside the left post for a 2-0 Cougar lead in the 30th minute.
In the second half, Shannon Coe scored her team-leading 11th goal on a breakaway to put the Cougars up 3-0 in the 59th minute. For Coe, she now has 31 points on the season, thanks also to an assist she was credited with on Kasamoto's score. Massro \ closed out the scoring with her third collegiate goal in the 83rd minute.
Azusa Pacific out-shot Point Loma Nazarene by a 15-8 count, which included a 9-3 cushion in the first half. Though she was never really tested in the game, Cougar freshman keeper Jill Colfer nonetheless picked up her seventh shutout of the season.
With the victory Azusa Pacific improves 13-1-1 overall and finishes second in the GSAC with an 9-1 conference slate. Despite finishing a game behind GSAC champ and undefeated Biola, it appears Azusa Pacific will still be the top seed in the upcoming NAIA regional playoffs because of a higher longo score than Biola. The official playoff pairings, which are determined by the longo scoring criteria which awards points based on margin of victories and quality of opponents, will be released on Monday (Nov. 1).
