AZUSA, Calif. - Heading into the halfway point in the PacWest soccer season, the Concordia men found themselves on the road against a familiar team, the Azusa Pacific Cougars.

The Golden Eagles had defeated the Cougars earlier this season in non-conference play. The men were even hungrier for another win in Azusa, somewhere they hadn't won in over a decade.

The offense has been quite successful in past games for the Golden Eagles, and they have pressured other team's defenses more and more throughout this season. This game was no different because that offensive power was on full display from the start of the kick.

The Golden Eagles had multiple shots toward the goal to put significant pressure on the Courgars defense during the first half. It was only a matter of time before the Golden Eagles were going to score because of the pressure from players such as Anthony Morales, Tyler Oakson, and Kevin Sanchez.

In the 24th minute of the game, that offensive pressure cracked the defense from a flurry of on-target shots from Sanchez and Oakson. The Golden Eagles pressure was so much that it made the Cougars have a defensive miscommunication breakdown that led to a Ryan Smith goal off a corner kick that bounced around for a bit.

From that point on, the Golden Eagles looked to be in the driver's seat defensively and offensively for the rest of the half, with the same score of 1-0 going into the 2nd half.

Returning from the half, the Cougars looked to try and even the score up, but the Golden Eagles had other plans for them. Riding that wave of offensive pressure from the first half, the Golden Eagles wanted more than one goal. Anthony Morales was back on the attack coming right out of the half and had a great solo score in the 51st minute of the game to make it 2-0 with all the pressure on the Cougars.

With a score of 2-0, the defense for the Golden Eagles was also stellar in this game. The starting defensive returner Wyatt Burris had been injured for a couple of games for the Golden Eagles. His defensive prowess was greatly missed during those stretch of games. Being back from that injury, Burris made some incredible defensive plays and slide tackles to prevent the Cougars from getting any shots toward the Golden Eagles goal.

Strange events happened in the 67th minute of the game, where the stadium lights went out and delayed the game for 20-30 minutes until play resumed. After that stadium power outage, play resumed as normal, and the Golden Eagles pressure was back on.

After some tough physical play in the 74th minute of the game, the APU Cougars were now playing with a man down after a player received his second yellow card of the game. To ensure the Golden Eagles sealed this win, the team's defense played an absolutely stellar second half. Every attempt that the Cougars had on offense got swallowed up by the Golden Eagles defense with great intensity and focus.

The Golden Eagles had a tremendous, complete game from both sides of the field. In addition to this being the second time the Golden Eagles had a shutout win against the APU Cougars, it also marks the first time winning at APU in the NCAA DII era and first since the schools played at the NAIA level in 2011.

For more men's soccer action, come watch their last home game of the year in PacWest play and celebrate the seniors for senior night this Saturday, October 21st, against the visiting team Fresno Pacific University.

For the full CUI men's soccer schedule, CLICK HERE