LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Jumping out early. That was the key to success for Biola Men's Soccer last week as the Eagles started PacWest play with a win and a tie on the road. All three of the Eagles' goals against Holy Names and Dominican came in the first half, with Alex Lugo scoring in the third minute on Saturday and Leo Thompson and Hunter Finnegan scoring within eight minutes of each other against Holy Names. 

Now that the Eagles are nine matches into the 2019 season, one can begin to see the trends that accompany winning soccer for Head Coach Todd Elkins' group. To repeat the point made earlier, the Eagles need to score in the first half. Biola has scored at least one goal in the first 45 minutes of all three of its wins and its most recent tie. And funnily enough, the Eagles have gotten first-half goals from five different men this year before any student-athlete has recorded his second goal in the first period. Biola also cannot settle for overtime. All of the Eagles' wins have finished in 90 minutes while the team in 0-1-2 when their matches need extra time. So this group needs to focus on putting opponents away and playing to the final whistle in order to secure three points. 

This week is also the start of a five-match homestand for the Biola soccer teams, with Academy of Art and Notre Dame de Namur coming to La Mirada this week before all three Hawaii schools come to Al Barbour Field in a six-day stretch that begins October 26. That means the Eagles have no time to waste if they want to continue the program tradition of success at home since they'll only have one more match at Al Barbour Field after this five-match homestand. Biola starts the week with a 2-1-1 record at home and has aspirations of a 4-1-1 record and 10 points in conference by the time the week is done. 
 
MULTIMEDIA: Live video and live stats will be provided free of charge for all Biola home contests. See links and cost for road contests in the previews below.

TICKETS: Biola home events are always free to Biola students, staff, faculty and alumni. Children 12 and under are also always free. General admission is $6 and discounted tickets for opposing school students, guests under 18 and seniors are $4. Saturday night will also be La Mirada Soccer Association Night at Al Barbour Field! All coaches and players from LMSA will receive free admission and parents of LMSA players can get tickets for a discounted price of $3.

BIOLA (3-4-2, 1-0-1 PacWest) vs Academy of Art (0-8, 0-3 PacWest): Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.\\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
The Eagles will look to uphold their 3-0 all-time record against Academy of Art during Thursday's meeting at Al Barbour Field. This will be the Urban Knights' first trip to La Mirada since 2008, as the Eagles won each meeting over the last two years in San Francisco. Academy of Art carries an eight-match losing streak into the contest and has scored just three goals on the year. But the majority of the Urban Knights' struggles have come on the defensive side of the pitch. ART U has given up the second-most goals in the PacWest with 25 in eight contests and is still trying to figure out its goalkeeper situation with two men playing over 300 minutes in goal across five contests. 

The thing to watch for in this match will be Academy of Art's ability to defend in the second half. The Urban Knights typically enter halftime tied or at a one-goal deficit, but all eight opponents have scored at least one second-half goal to accumulate a total of 16 scores after the mid-match break. 

ART U has played all of its matches in the Bay Area so far in the 2019 season. This will be the Urban Knights only trip to Southern California this year and they'll end the conference schedule with the three-match trip to Hawaii. 

BIOLA (3-4-2, 1-0-1 PacWest) vs Notre Dame de Namur (4-6, 1-3 PacWest): Saturday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.\\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
Like the Notre Dame de Namur women's team, Argos Men's Soccer is in the midst of a challenging start to its PacWest schedule, playing six-straight road matches to begin conference play. Being on the road has spelled trouble for NDNU through its first 10 matches of the season, as the Argos are 0-3 on the road after losing all three matches on their Hawaii road trip that ended last week. Notre Dame de Namur opened the season with seven-straight matches at home, but the scoring was still less dependable that Head Coach BJ Noble would like.

The Argos has scored just nine goals in 10 matches this season while surrendering 19. Ten of those goals came in a three-match stretch from September 16 to 21 for NDNU, during which the Argos went 0-3 while facing two opponents that are common to Biola. The Eagles scored three goals against Northwest Nazarene and two goals at Cal State LA. But the Argos were held scoreless by both of those teams when they faced them on September 16 and 19.

Biola is 1-3 all-time against Notre Dame de Namur, but that lone victory came in upset fashion two years ago when the Eagles defeated the Argos 1-0 in their second match as PacWest members. Biola's backline handed the 6-0-1 Argos their first loss of the year while shutting down one of the PacWest's most highly regarded players that year in Esteban Berumen, limiting him to one shot on goal the entire match. NDNU has two multi-goal scorers this season, with Anthony Andoyan and John Santillian each scoring three times in 10 matches. But only three other men have found the back of the net, giving the Argos five goal scorers compared to the eight Biola has on its roster.

Notre Dame de Namur will come to Al Barbour Field on Saturday after playing Point Loma in San Diego on Thursday afternoon. Saturday night will also be La Mirada Soccer Association Night at Al Barbour Field! All coaches and players from LMSA will receive free admission and parents of LMSA players can get tickets for a discounted price of $3.