Nana Akyen
“My biggest hope for today was that we would take another step forward,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “We have had a couple of situations where we have gotten throttled and then bounced back. I think the Point Loma game on the Saturday was the second of those bounce backs. My hope was that we could keep it moving in the right direction. I thought all-in-all we were able to do that.”
The Warriors ability to move forward was called into question when the Cougars scored in the fourteenth minute. Vinicius Dantas drove to the goal from the left side of the field. Instead of shooting, he passed the ball across the face of the goal to Alex Earl who slid in and kicked the ball to the near post. The ball ricocheted off the post and into the goal.
It was only the third time this season that the Warriors’ opponent has been the first to put points on the board. The other two times where in blowout losses to Biola and Fresno Pacific. This time, the Warriors would bounce back immediately, tying the game just one and one-half minute later.
Akyen drove the center of the field with Isaac Thompkins on his right and Ben Gordon to his left. Akyen passed the ball to Thompkins, leading him ahead of all the Cougar defenders. Thompkins served the ball back across the goal where Gordon was charging the net. Gordon took one touch to put the ball away.
“We may look back on that goal as a big moment in our season,” said Wolf.
The Cougar’s took a 2-1 lead in the eightieth minute on a goal by Dantas. Left all alone on the right side, Dantas took a shot from 20 yards out and placed the ball in the upper-V at the far post.
Once again, Westmont seemed to turn up the notch on their level of play in response to the Cougar’s goal. The Warriors thought they had scored in the eighty-fifth minute, but the referee ruled that the ball had not crossed the line. A moment later, Azusa Pacific was called for a handball in the box, but Cougar keeper Joe Geletko guessed correctly on Doug Harrell’s penalty kick and was able to punch the ball away.
Just as fans were beginning to resign themselves to a close loss, Akyen changed their minds.
“After the game,” said Wolf, “I told the team, ‘You added a page to Westmont soccer history. This is a game that people will talk about.’
“We have an incredible history with APU,” continued Wolf. “As I said to (Azusa Pacific head coach) Dave (Blomquist) after the game, there just aren’t any conventional games (between us). Every game has some twist or turn that nobody saw coming.
One of those twists was a thirty-minute suspension of play three minutes into the first overtime period due to a thunderstorm that passed through the area. The game was played in a variety of conditions including rain, sunshine, darkening skies, bright blue skies, wind and calm. If fans didn’t like the weather, all they had to do was wait ten minutes for it to change.
What didn’t change, at least in two overtime periods, was the score.
With three games remaining in the regular season, Westmont is currently in seventh place in the GSAC, having tallied eight points in the conference standings (three points for a win, one for a tie). The Master’s, which Westmont will play next week, is one point ahead of the Warriors with nine points.
On Saturday, the Warriors will host Hope International in a men’s and women’s doubleheader. The Royals are tied for ninth place in the GSAC, but with six points, they trail the Warriors by just two. The men’s squads will face off on Saturday at noon with the women’s teams following at 2:30.
