AZUSA, Calif. -- If there were any doubt who the GSAC's best team was, all questions were answered Saturday in Azusa.
And quickly, too.
The NAIA's No. 3-ranked Azusa Pacific used an un-relenting attack scoring twice in the first 20 minutes in drilling No. 11 Vanguard, 5-2, in a battle of the GSAC co-champions in the semifinals of the NAIA Region II Playoffs on Azusa Square Field.
With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 16-1-1 and advances to next week's finals. Vanguard ends its finest season in school history at 16-5.
All-GSAC and All-American candidate Andriy Budnyy factored in all 5 Cougar goals, scoring twice and assisting on the final 3.
"He's easily the best player in the league if not the country," said Azusa Pacific head coach Phil Wolf. "He was playing with a little more motivation today. There is no question that he's the best player in this league. He brings it every game."
It was a re-match between the GSAC co-champions, which the Cougars won 3 weeks ago, 3-2, on this same field. Today the Cougars went right to work and for all intents and purposes put this one away early.
Budnyy scored twice in a 2:30 span to put the Cougars up 2-0. His first goal came off a counter-attack after Damon Brooks collected a Lion corner kick, carried the ball up the field before feeding a streaking Budnyy with a pass off the outside of his foot. Budnyy took the pass, cut back and hammered home his 18th goal of the year off the post in the 19th minute.
Just 2 minutes later, Phil Hoyt received a ball in the box, beat a Lion defender and chipped a ball into the box to Budnyy, who drilled a low ball past Lion GK Tommaso Bianchi and into the net.
"We started our line a little bit back to start the game, but once the game started we realized that we needed to just go at them," said Wolf. "After 10 minutes we took it to them, because we didn't think they could handle us today, and they didn't."
The Cougar defense bottled up GSAC Player of the Year Matthew Hess for the second time this season, allowing him to take just one shot. In 2 games against Azusa Pacific, Hess could only muster 5 shots.
"We played him straight up," said Wolf. "He's good in behind running on to balls, so we wanted to just keep him in front of us. He had a hard time. We've got 2 good central defenders."
But Hess did get into the mix on the Lions first goal. The Lions, who gave up 5 goals for the first time all season, responded as Nathan Kramer received a through ball from Hess. Kramer rifled a low shot past Julian Cottrell to cut the deficit in half in the 29th minute.
The Cougars weren't done though as they proceeded to put the game away. Four minutes after Kramer's goal Ian Leibbrandt got into the act and put the Cougars up 3-1. Budnyy carried the ball into the box and crossed it across the ground to Leibbrandt, who hit a low liner to the far post and past a diving Bianchi.
Just 1:37 into the second half, Leibbrandt and Budnyy hooked up again to make a 3-goal game when Budnyy chipped a ball through to Leibbrandt, who blasted a shot into the upper right corner leaving Bianchi with no chance. At that point, things began to spin out of control.
A total of 7 cautions and 2 red cards were doled out in what quickly became an unpleasant scene. Eight of the 9 cards were handed out in the second half, the first coming when Vanguard's Jose Hernandez was shown an immediate red card just 30 seconds after Leibbrandt's goal giving the Cougars a man advantage.
With that advantage, Kolt Callaway hammered home another Budnyy cross for his fifth of the season when he volleyed the ball out of the air and into the net for a 5-1 Cougar lead in the 54th minute.
In the 64th minute, Kramer took a long dump-in from Mark Babel and beat Cottrell for his 14th of the season to round out the scoring in the 64th minute. However, 19 minutes later, things turned ugly when Kramer was given a red card for a flagrant forearm that sent Cougar defender Phil Hoyt to the hospital.
Play resumed after a 45-minute delay without further incident, and the Cougars burned off the final 7 minutes to earn their first trip to the NAIA Region II Finals since 2001, ironically the last time they won a GSAC co-championship.
The Cougars host CalPac champion Holy Names, which they defeated 3-1 in the second game of the season in Santa Barbara. The Hawks defeated Notre Dame de Namur earlier today. The NAIA Region II championship game is schedule for Saturday (Nov. 13) at 1 p.m. on Azusa Square with the winner receiving the region's automatic berth to the 2004 NAIA National Tournament Nov. 17-22 in Olathe, Kan.
"I felt great today," said Budnyy. "I was motivated. We don't want to take our wins for granted, but rather we want to keep moving forward. We're not playing for ourselves but for something much bigger."
