The Sunbirds moved on in the NCCAA West Region Playoffs in convincing fashion with a 5-1 win over Trinity Lutheran to advance to the West Region Finals on Saturday against California Baptist.

First team PacWest All-Conference forward Paul Islas had two goals in the win for his 17th and 18th goals of the season. Rodrigo Vianna also added two goals for FPU including a free-kick goal late in the match. Second team PacWest All-Conference midfielder Gustavo Silva also notched a goal for the Sunbirds in the rout.

“We knew coming into this game, because of the way our offense had been clicking in the past, if we got the opportunities early we would capitalize on those and that's the way our two early goals came about,” said head coach Jaime Ramirez.

Fabian Rangel was spectacular in goal making some game changing saves when the Sunbirds margin was only at 2-0. The Eagles added a late goal with FPU already up 4-0 and most of their defensive starters on the bench. The win moves Rangel, who was named Honorable Mention PacWest All-Conference Goalkeeper, to 12-0 on the season.

“Would have loved to have gotten the shutout,” said Ramirez. “I knew we were taking a risk when we started resting a number of our starters. We wanted to do that because it is a short period of rest before we play again on Saturday.”

The Sunbirds wasted little time, as they have most of the season, and scored in the sixth minute. Silva launched a shot from outside the 18 yard box and put it past keeper Roman Vasquez for the score and the 1-0 lead.

Just one minute later FPU struck again this time on a beautiful cross from Alvaro Nogales to Vianna's head that landed in the net.

The Sunbirds dominated the run of play throughout the match creating multiple opportunities and could have won by a larger margin. The Eagles were persistent in marking Islas and were able to thwart a couple of his chances in the first half.

In the 25th minute Islas finally broke through when Silva crossed the ball into the box and he flip kicked the ball on the redirect and in for the 3-0 advantage. Just before half Islas scored again on a header from Chris Young and the Sunbirds went into halftime up 4-0.

Trinity Lutheran came out fast and furious in the second half but FPU was able to withstand the barrage and preserve the shutout until the 84 th minute when Carlos Camacho redirected a ball played into the box in the back of the net.

The game got out of hand a few minutes later when defender George Gonzalez was issued his second caution and sent off. He punted the ball from a players hand and punted another ball on the sidelines. A redshirt player was also sent off for entering the field of play and after Vianna's second goal put the Sunbirds up 5-1, TLC's Jesus Lires was sent off for sliding spikes up into a tackle. All told the game saw eight cards (five yellows and three reds) six of which came against the Eagles.

The No. 1 seeded Sunbirds will face No. 3 California Baptist, who defeated No. 2 Azusa Pacific 2-1 in the other West Semi-Final, at Ramirez Field on Saturday at 1 pm. The Lancers defeated the Sunbirds 4-2 at home earlier the season when FPU was hit with two red cards early in second half, erasing a 2-0 lead.