No. 1 ranked Azusa Pacific men's soccer continued its perfect season Saturday afternoon with a 5-1 victory over PacWest foe Hawaii Pacific. The Cougars are now 12-0 on the season and 5-0 in conference play. The Cougars allowed a goal for the first time in conference play in just the second minute of the game before scoring five unanswered goals.
"It was a great second half performance," head coach Dave Blomquist said, "We didn't start quite as well as we had wanted to but the guys continued to build, increase their focus and concentration."
After the Sharks opening goal, the Cougars responded in the 16th minute with a goal that tied the game. A Danillo Dias cross found the head of junior forward David Kwinn who put his seventh goal of the season into the back of the net.
Azusa Pacific peppered the net with 10 shots in the first half with Kwinn's being the only goal, as the game was knotted up at the half.
In the second half, the scoring started in the 60th minute with junior forward James Ndubueze scoring off of a header for his team-leading 10th goal of the season. This gave Azusa Pacific its first lead of the game.
"The pressure was on a little bit," Ndubueze said. "We all decided to just have fun and enjoy the game because it's a privilege to play here."
The Cougars then put their foot on the gas scoring just over a minute later. A beautiful build up through the midfield allowed junior defender Jessie Echeverria to score his first goal of the season. Senior midfielder Arturo Astorga set him up perfectly which was his team-leading sixth assist of the season to increase the lead 3-1.
Ten minutes later, freshman midfielder Daniel Osei-Tutu scored to increase the tally to 4-1 before sophomore midfielder Gregoire Diep got in on the action scoring the final goal of the game capping off the victory 5-1.
In the game, the Cougars had five different goal scorers and four different players with assists. This was the second time this season the Cougars have scored 5+ goals, the previous coming in their first PacWest game of the season against Academy of Art on Oct. 3rd.Â
Azusa Pacific's look to continue its perfect season against Hawaii Hilo this Monday, October 28th. The Cougars will be the nightcap of the doubleheader scheduled to start at 7:30p.m. at the Cougar Soccer Complex.
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