AZUSA, Calif. — Azusa Pacific and rival Biola faced off in a nonconference match Tuesday evening that saw the Cougars jump out in front in the second minute and never look back winning 3-1. Senior captain James Ndubueze was on the end of the first goal before Elisha Burbridge and Victor Ramos each scored their first goals of the season to add to Azusa Pacific's advantage and help them improve to 4-1-1.

"We started with a lot of good energy tonight," coach Dave Blomquist said, "APU versus Biola always has a little something extra and right from the kickoff we had the energy to get after it."

How it Happened: Azusa Pacific attacked Biola right out of the gate, Ndubueze would get on the scoresheet first in just the second minute after Gregoire Diep fed Leo Tomasi a through ball that led to his perfect cross for the center forward to get on the end of. It was Ndubueze's second goal of the season.

The Cougars continued to their success in the first half by maintaining possession and were able to create multiple chances. On a corner kick in the 17th minute, David Kwinn got his head on a curling cross but he was denied by the Eagles goalkeeper who made a fine diving save.

Eventually, Azusa Pacific doubled its lead in the 39th minute on Burbridge's first career goal. After a David Medeiros shot was blocked, Burbridge pounced on the rebound with a one-timer that found the bottom left corner from just outside the 18-yard box. The Cougars outshot the Eagles 12-6 and outpossesed them as well recording 56% of the possession in the first 45 minutes.

With a 2-0 lead coming out of the break, neither team created quality chances to score until more than 20 minutes into the half. The Cougars would add to their tally with Ramos' first goal of the season coming off of a Medeiros shot once again. Ramos and Medeiros worked a great give-and-go before Medeiros shot was saved but fell right to Ramos for the easy goal.

"With a couple of guys going out with injury tonight it just proved even more that we have guys that are ready to go in and play well," Blomquist said, "Guys work hard to be ready for when their name is called."

Despite the big lead the Eagles did score their lone goal in the 86th minute keeping the Cougars from recording their fourth clean sheet of the season.

"We're still searching for consistency," Blomquist said, "In most of the games we've had some lulls and so if this team can figure out how to put in their best performance over 90 minutes, we could be really really good."

With the 3-1 win, the No. 7 ranked Cougars now look forward to starting their quest for a third consecutive PacWest title as the conference schedule begins with a trip to Hawai'i to take on Hawai'i Hilo, Hawai'i Pacific and Chaminade next week. "We take it game by game," Ndubueze said, "We don't think about the PacWest Championship, we don't think about Nationals. We just think about getting better and better every single game, we want to win every game."

Up Next: The Cougars travel to Hawai'i to take on Hawai'i Hilo next Wednesday, September 29th in their first PacWest conference game. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. Hawai'i Standard Time or 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time. To follow along with live stats click here.