On what proved to be an unpredictable Wednesday night in Golden State Athletic Conference men’s soccer, Westmont and Biola played to a 1-1 tie in La Mirada. Anthony Niboli scored the equalizer for the Warriors in the sixty-sixth minute of play.
“It was not a great performance by us,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “We were probably fortunate to get away with a tie. We didn’t have nearly the sharpness that we had against Concordia. It’s a funny game, in that we were really good in a game we lost (to Concordia) and not as good in a game we tied.”
Zach Bautista scored Biola’s goal in the fifty-eighth minute off an assist from Kennedy Chongo. Eight minutes later, senior midfielder Jonathon Schoff broke loose and was one-on-one with Biola’s keeper. But before he could get a shot off, Schoff was taken down in the box, setting up the penalty kick on which Niboli scored.
Biola out shot Westmont 19-11 but the shots-on-goal margin was a more modest 6-5 in favor of the Eagles. Westmont was unable to take advantage of a 6-2 corner kick margin in its favor.
“We feel like we have some things to sort out and we’ll set our sights to doing that when we get back into town,” said Wolf, whose team finds itself in seventh place in the conference standings.
In other GSAC action, #19 Concordia entered the day in third place one point behind #3 Azusa Pacific and #14 Vanguard. But Concordia upset Azusa Pacific 3-1 and Vanguard was defeated by California Baptist 3-2 in overtime. As a result, Concordia is now in first place with 18 points while Azusa Pacific and Vanguard are tied for second with 16 points. The Master’s which defeated Hope International 5-0 is now in fourth place with 14 points. Fifth place Fresno Pacific, which has 13 points, was idle today. California Baptist moved into sole possession of sixth place with 10 points. Westmont, the seventh place team has eight points, one more than both Point Loma Nazarene, who defeated San Diego Christian 2-0, and Hope International.
Westmont’s final home game of the season, and the last men’s soccer game to be played on Russ Carr Field, will take place on Saturday against San Diego Christian at 3 o’clock. Construction of a new soccer/track and field complex is set to begin next month.
