FRESNO, Calif. --- Senior
Kennedy Chongo continued his red-hot play as of late with two goals, leading Biola to a 3-0 win at Fresno Pacific in the GSAC Tournament Quarterfinals on Wednesday night at Ramirez Field in Fresno.
The Eagles, the No. 5 seed in the GSAC tournament, improve to 8-9-1 with the victory and advance to the GSAC Semifinals where they will play No. 1 seed Vanguard in Costa Mesa on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
The Sunbirds end the season with a record of 9-9-0.
Chongo's two tallies ended up helping Biola pull off an impressive feat: defeating the same team twice on the road in one season. The Eagles defeated the Sunbirds 2-0 in Fresno just two weeks ago.
Biola picked up a pair of first-half goals to earn a little breathing room early on. The Eagles peppered the FPU goal early in the first half and finally broke through on their 11th shot of the period. In the 34th minute, Zach Bautista placed a great cross into the box where senior Phillip Friehe headed it past the sprawling keeper to give the Eagles the 1-0 advantage.
Biola did not sit on its laurels after that, however, and kept up the pressure. Just six minutes later senior Kennedy Chongo received a nice through pass and beat the last defender for a breakaway. But the FPU defender tackled him from behind in the box, earning a yellow card for himself and a penalty kick for Biola. Chongo stepped into the spot kick and tucked it into the left corner to put the Eagles up 2-0.
Chongo would keep up the onslaught in the second half. Bautista fed a great through ball to Chongo near the corner and the senior dribbled down the end line and beat the keeper with a quick touch to the near post to make it 3-0.
From there the Eagles' defense took over, thwarting numerous chances by the Sunbirds the rest of the way.
Junior goalkeeper Aaron Fenlason faced 17 shots and made four saves to earn his seventh shutout of the season.
"Kennedy had a fantastic match for us," said Head Coach Bryan Kuderman. "He was almost too good for our own team, creating chances so fast and centering that ball before our guys could even catch up to him.
"Overall, I thought our defense did a fantastic job of stepping up and shutting down their direct approach," said Kuderman. "We worked on how we were going to defend them all week and the boys executed the plan perfectly."
Prior to the start of the season, the Eagles had an 0-6-1 record against Fresno Pacific in the last seven meetings. That included a tough loss to the Sunbirds last year in La Mirada which essentially cost Biola its first GSAC title. However, the Eagles would outscore FPU 5-0 in the two matches.
The last time Biola defeated Fresno Pacific twice in the same season came in 2002. That season, the Eagles defeated the Sunbirds 1-0 in Fresno in the final regular season game, then traveled back up to Fresno the following week for a first-round playoff match which they won 2-1.
Biola now travels back to Vanguard to play the Lions in the GSAC Semifinals. The two teams just played each other last Wednesday with Vanguard pulling out a 1-0 victory. Biola was unable to score despite firing 14 shots--11 in the second half.
The Lions had a wild 3-2 victory over Concordia in their quarterfinal match on Wednesday. Vanguard blew a 2-0 lead, allowing Concordia to tie the game in the 86th minute. However, the Lions would score just 27 seconds later to take back the lead and hold on this time. Kick-off for Saturday's match is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
