California Baptist University
Azusa Pacific University (Calif.)
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
11/5/2008 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
AZUSA, Calif. --- The first thing Azusa Pacific Head Coach Phil Wolf said to California Baptist University Head Coach Ryan Jorden as the two shook hands immediately following today's game was “we were the second best team on the field today.”
He was right. Problem is, this is soccer and oftentimes the better team doesn't win.
Despite getting outplayed, defending national champion and newly-crowned GSAC champion Azusa Pacific scored in the 88th minute to avoid overtime and escape its home pitch with a 1-0 win over the Lancers in the opening round of the 2008 GSAC Men's Soccer Postseason Tournament Wednesday afternoon.
“It's hard when you were the better team to not get the win,” said Jorden. “When the defending national champion and current conference champion knows that you were the better team, I can take that as some encouragement, but at the end of the day it's hard to lose a game like this when you've played very well and just weren't able to score. That's been the story for us all year.”
The loss brings the Lancers' season to a close at 7-8-3 overall. The NAIA's No. 9-ranked Cougars move to 12-3-3 and advance to Saturday's semifinals where they host The Master's.
It was just the second postseason appearance ever and the first since 1990 for the Lancers, but they didn't play like it. They out-shot the Cougars, who have played in three straight national finals, 13-9, including a 5-3 difference on goal.
The difference, though, came with just 2:17 left in regulation when Vini Dantas tucked in his second goal of the campaign. The Lancers committed a critical turnover in their half of the field. Dantas picked it up, took three dribbles down the field with a defender keeping pace and sent a low shot from just outside the 18 that hugged the turf all the way to the far post and skipped past Lancer keeper Jeff Redinger and into the net.
The Lancers had little time to get the equalizer.
CBU nearly broke through in the 34th minute with its best opportunity. All-GSAC Gabriel Gonzalez curled a ball from the left side that sailed over Cougar keeper James Crawford before caroming off the post. Then, late in the second, he virtually had the same chance, but Crawford was able to push it over the cross bar.
Redinger collected two saves but neither one was overly threatening. Crawford made five saves for his seventh shutout.
“The performance and effort we put in today was first rate,” said Jorden. “We did enough to get the result but just didn't finish our chances, and that's difficult to take. We were absolutely terrific and were the better team today. The way we played was first class, but it doesn't make the loss any easier. It was a season of almosts, and we almost got the win today and almost had a tremendous year.”
