AZUSA, Calif. – For the second straight contest, the Cougars came up short in overtime as they fell to defending West Region champion UC San Diego 2-1.
Thursday's game was the home opener for Azusa Pacific. They host Northwest Nazarene in their final non-conference game of the season on Saturday at 1 p.m.
GOAL BY GOAL
In the seventh minute the Tritons (2-0-1) put together a stream of nice passes. Touches from Jeff Powers and Uly de la Cal led to a good volley from Steven Ortiz who blasted the ball into the upper 90 of the right corner.
The Cougars (0-3) equalizer came in the 49th minute when Arturo Astorga took a nice feed from Kaleb Armbrust. He proceeded to make a nice run on the right side before beating UC San Diego goalkeeper Pedro Enciso on a low angled shot. It was the first goal of the season allowed by UC San Diego.
The game winner came in the 97th minute when de la Cal scored off a rebound. The original shot came from Kiefer Cooksey but the save by Cougar netminder Nathanel Linquist deflected to de la Cal.
POST GAME COMMENTS
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- In his first career start, Linquist made four saves on the six shots on goal he faced.
- UC San Diego held a 19-3 edge in total shots as well as a 6-2 advantage on corner kicks.
- A chippy game throughout saw the team combine for 35 total fouls and seven yellow cards.
- Dating back to last season, the Cougars have played into overtime in six of their last seven games
- Since Azusa Pacific became a fully-fledged NCAA institution in 2014, the schools have played four times with each game going to overtime (UCSD 2-1-1)
