Box Score FULLERTON, Calif. --- Biola Men's Soccer had a week and a half to stew on its upsetting loss to San Diego Christian that led to the team dropping from the NAIA Top-25 Coaches' Poll for the first time in over a year.
 
That kind of upset can lead a team to react in one of two ways; it can either knock the train completely off the tracks or it can motivate the team to get back to greatness.
 
Head Coach Todd Elkins' team chose to get back to greatness on Tuesday afternoon as they handed No. 17 Hope International their first loss of the 2016 season with a 2-0 road victory.
 
"I am really proud of the guys," said Head Coach Todd Elkins. "This is what you want as a coach. To sit back and watch your team do well, fight through the tough parts of the game and get away with a win. We were desperate for a win. For us, this game is all we've been thinking about since over a week ago."
 
Both teams came into play nursing some fairly significant injuries to their starting 11, but the Eagles had the upper hand of coming in off a bye week. HIU had to play its third match in seven days after playing 110 minutes in the other two matches, both on the road.
 
The Royals had a few early opportunities at goal, with none bigger than a penalty kick opportunity awarded them in the 24^th minute. The Royals' Thales Serra, who came into the game 2-for-2 on penalty kick attempts, took the chance, but Igor Puglia was all over it to keep the game level early on.
 
"This was the best performance that Igor has had," said Elkins. "This was a whole different level of good, which is what we knew we could get from him. He stood in confident and made a PK save that was a game-changer. He made a couple more great saves later on too."
 
After the penalty kick went awry the Hope International offense began to slow way down. After three early clean looks at goal before the PK, the Royals were only able to get one more shot off in the half, and it could not even get through the active Eagles' back line.
 
The teams would play to a scoreless draw through the first 45 minutes, with Biola looking to much more the aggressor heading into the halftime break. Chances from Kousei Mattox, Leonardo Contreras and Jarret Pugh all forced the HIU defense to get creative as the final minutes of the period ticked away.

That offensive aggressiveness did not wane in the slightest as the second half began. The Eagles had their first offensive go of the second period within the first 50 seconds or so. The breakaway run with numbers was snuffed out before a shot could get taken, but the point was made that the offensive pressure would not relent and that BU was definitely going to look for a win in this one.
 
"How we did down the stretch was really based upon how we did early in the game," said Elkins. "We put ourselves in really good position to work hard and defend, and to defend a lead."
 
The defense of that lead began in the 61^st minute of play. It began because of another fantastic piece of work on an offensive set piece. On Biola's fourth corner kick chance of the game Mattox served a great ball to the head of Sammy McKay who headed the ball straight past the HIU keeper to score the first goal of the match.
 
It was McKay's second goal of the season, both coming on headed balls off corner kick chances.
 
"We created this lead by playing good defense first," said Elkins. "Then, our attacks got better and better as the game went along. Sammy's chance and goal was a symptom of us creating a lot of attacks that led to us having a lot of corners. We had a really good service, and Sammy has been getting better throughout the season at these attacking set pieces."
 
After the Eagles got on the board the field turned into a teeter-totter of sorts as the teams traded possession back and forth repeatedly over the next 29 minutes.
 
The possession looked drastically different for both teams, as HIU had difficulties getting the ball anywhere near the front of the goal because of the stifling defense of the Eagles' back line and Mattox and Pugh as drop-back defenders.
 
On Biola's end, Daniel Martinez was slicing through the Hope International defense like they were soft butter, but could not find the perfect opportunity to strike.
 
Martinez wore down the Hope International defense until they got to a point where they had to play sloppy. That exhaustion caused them to make a mistake while defending Contreras in the box, which gave the Eagles a chance of their own from the penalty spot.
 
The senior captain handpicked Pugh to take the penalty attempt as a reward for the hard work the junior had been putting in at midfield throughout the game. Pugh finished strong and gave Biola a two-goal advantage with just over two minutes left on the clock.
 
The defense held strong for the final two minutes and helped the Eagles upset the Royals and force them to fall to 10-1-4 (4-1-2 GSAC). Biola improves to 9-4 (4-3 GSAC) and has a chance to keep the good vibes going during its Senior Night when it hosts San Diego Christian at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
 
"Overall, I think it was a really gritty performance by our guys. It was not a perfect performance, but it was gritty. You could tell they wanted it and were willing to do anything to get it," said Elkins.