Box Score LA MIRADA ---After a frustrating, scoreless first half led Head Coach Todd Elkins to keep his players on the field for halftime, No. 9 Biola rallied but still fell short, losing 2-1 against No. 14 Vanguard to drop to 5-2 in the Golden State Athletic Conference and fall out of second place.
 
The Eagles played one of its most challenging halves all season in the first, allowing 11 shots to just three attempted and being thoroughly dominated in possession by a pressuring, but patient, Vanguard attack. The 11 shots, the most allowed in a half by Biola this season, led to two goals symptomatic of Biola's problems and Vanguard's exploitation of them.
 
The first came after a rare Biola counterattack in between a flurry of Lion shots where Madison Lopp took advantage of her defender on the counter and beat her to the box. This forced a rotation from the rest of the BU defense and that left Madison Cody unmarked to finish the simple cross. The two Madisons are part of a trio of Lions that accounts for 60 percent of Vanguard's goals this season.
 
Biola was gashed on the wings, including on the corner that setup Nicole Dunn's assist to Jessica Takukeiaho for Vanguard's separating goal, all night with an injury to star line player Taylor Venegas forcing role shifts across the board with Amanda Lillicrop trying to fill in for Venegas instead of as the person feeding through ball after through ball to setup Venegas.
 
The Eagles stayed in it through some luck and a whole lot of Briana Williams. The senior set her season-high with six saves, including a physics-questioning effort that saw her challenge a defender on the near post, force a pass to an unmarked Vanguard player at the far post, and then somehow manage to rotate, dive, and deny, what looked like, a sure goal.
 
After halftime adjustments implemented Coach Elkins, the Eagles played with noticeably more pace and effort in the second half, intercepting what were completed Vanguard passes in the first. The offense, while still seeming a bit off, rallied in the second half, generating 10 shots, and came together in the final five minutes to get Jessie Burns some space to fire a shot off the hip of the Lions' goalie and into the back of the net for Burns' first goal of the season.
 
However, a talented and focused No.14 Vanguard was not going to allow Biola to take a whole half off and be rewarded as the 2-0 deficit was too much to overcome. The loss comes on the heels of Biola's 4-1 shellacking at the hands of No. 5 Concordia, and the two losses will surely tumble Biola out of the top-10 teams in the nation. Even more concerning, the loss pushes Biola, who started the week atop the GSAC, down to just a tie-breaker ahead of  No.12 Westmont, whom they will play again a week from today.
 
With just three games to go, Biola has no more time to take a half off if they want to maintain a top-four finish in what has been such a tremendous season so far. However, with three whole games to go, and just as importantly three more games for GSAC-leader Concordia to play, the door is still open for a Biola GSAC title.
 
The Eagles play their final regular season home game this season on Wednesday, Oct. 22 against San Diego Christian.