Box Score LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola broke a second-half, scoreless tie with a nice goal, but allowed a pair of goals over a two minute stretch late in the contest, falling 2-1 to The Master's College in the regular-season finale for both teams on Saturday night.
The Eagles wrap up the regular-season with a record of 10-6-1 and finishing third in the GSAC with a 6-4-0 conference record. The Mustangs improve to 8-9-1 and place sixth in the conference with a 4-5-1 record.
The two teams are slated to face each other again on Wednesday night in the GSAC Tournament Opening Round at 7:00 p.m. in La Mirada.
After a scoreless first half, Biola broke through with the first goal as Carlos Ballesteros cleaned up a deflected shot in the box to make it 1-0 in the 70th minute. Stephen Day, who was playing in just his second match of the season due to a delay in being cleared by the NAIA and then a knee injury, sent a blast toward goal which was deflected off the Mustangs' goalkeeper. The ball bounced over the keepers head and bounced toward the goal. Ballesteros then ran into the fray and touched it into the goal.
Things seemed to be going well for the Eagles after than until a scramble in front of the Biola goal in the 79th minute. In the scramble, Joey Mikulas broke through the bodies and sent the loose ball into the wide open goal to tie the score.
Just over one minute later, the match took a bad turn for the Eagles as defender Joao Toscan was whistled for fouling the on-rushing Mustang forward and--as the last defender--was shown a straight red card. Things went from bad to worse as Taylor Shahi scored with a solid shot off the ensuing direct kick to give The Master's the lead with 10 minutes to play.
Biola managed just two shots over the final 10 minutes of the game while down a man and ended up falling 2-1.
The Eagles had a chance to break through in the first half as with 3:06 to go in the period as Kevin Kiser was brought down on a great run in the Mustangs' box and Biola was awarded a penalty kick. However, Tony Montalvo's spot kick sailed over the bar and the score remained level.
Biola and The Master's open the GSAC Tournament in one of the Opening Round matches on Wednesday as the No. 3 and No. 6 teams, respectively. The other Opening Round match features No. 4 Vanguard hosting No. 5 Hope International at 2:00 p.m. The winners of those two matches advance to face No. 1 seed Concordia and No. 2 San Diego Christian in the GSAC Semifinals on Saturday.
