FRESNO, Calif. - It was a daunting task facing the Point Loma men's soccer team, needing a decision on the road against PacWest preseason favorite Fresno Pacific, but a late equalizer by
Patrice Glaser and a double overtime goal by
Christopher Tellez gave the Sea Lions the 2-1 upset over the Sunbirds (Oct. 10).
This was the fourth straight win for the Sea Lions (5-3-1, 4-1-0 PacWest) in PacWest play. It moved Point Loma within three points of conference leader Dixie State, who gave PLNU its only loss in PacWest play this season. The loss snapped an eight-match unbeaten streak for FPU (7-2-2, 4-1-1 PacWest) and handed them their first PacWest loss. Every team but Dixie State has lost at least once in PacWest play this season. Fresno Pacific is just one point ahead of Point Loma for second place in the PacWest standings.
"To go to Fresno and get full points is a great accomplishment," said Point Loma head coach
Phil Wolf. "They battled so hard against a very good Fresno Pacific team and I am so proud of these guys."
Things were not looking good after Fresno Pacific's Alvaro Nogales put the Sunbirds on the board first with a goal in the 21st minute. But as they have done all year in conference play, the Sea Loins competed for the entire 90 minutes.
Patrice Glaser tied the match at 1-1 for Point Loma in the 79th minute when he headed in the equalizer off a deflected shot from
Nico Tagaloa. That sent the match to overtime where it was Tellez's chance to be the hero.
Tellez received the header from Tagaloa, who connected with Glaser's corner kick on the far post, and knocked it back to a waiting Tellez for the game-winning goal with just 2:05 left on the clock. This was PLNU's biggest PacWest road win of the season. It was also the first career-goal for the sophomore Tellez.
"Tellez was in the right place at the right time and he made a good play but some of the credit has to go to Nico (Tagaloa) for being brave and going up to get that ball on the far post," added Wolf.
Avrin Yakou had four saves in win, including three in the first overtime period.
The four straight victories has PLNU alone for third in the PacWest, one point back of FPU and two up on Hawaii Pacific and Azusa Pacific.
"We are where we deserve to be," said Wolf on the PacWest standings. "We have one of the best teams in the league but we need to keep pressing to get those results. We dug ourselves the hole early with the 1-3-1 start but we have won our last four against some of the best teams in the PacWest."
Point Loma will now return home to face Chaminade on Monday, Oct. 12 at 3:30 p.m.
"It is a massive game on Monday," added Wolf. "We expended a lot of energy tonight but we will work on getting the legs back tomorrow. Every PacWest match is worth three points and we must treat it that way."
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