Box Score
#1 Fresno Pacific certainly played well enough to win a national title on Saturday night but some tough breaks ended up costing the Sunbirds as the team saw a 2-0 lead evaporate in the final 27 minutes of a 3-2 loss to #2 California Baptist in the NCCAA national championship match.

FPU led for 75 of the game's 90 minutes and was up 2-0 in the second half before an injury to Paul Islas on a play that would have put the Sunbirds up 3-0. After that the Lancers came back with three unanswered to win 3-2.

The Lancers scored the game-winner with just eight seconds left in regulation. After a Sunbird chance was thwarted with just under 25 seconds to play, the Lancers connected on passes for the counterattack, getting their first lead on a Marc Hope goal with just eight seconds left and not enough time for the Sunbirds to get a shot off.

Alvaro Nogales got the Sunbirds on the board just 4:18 into the match on a pass from Gustavo Silva. Islas scored for FPU in the fifth 57th minute after Bruno Pessoa kept a ball alive in the midfield before Islas scooped it up and outran the defense.

The pivotal play in the second half came moments after Islas had put the Sunbirds up 2-0. Islas burned the defense again giving him a one-on-one with CBU keeper Joey Pacheco who, anticipating that it was an almost certain goal for the Sunbird striker, ran far out of the box to meet Islas head on. Pacheco tackled Islas hard, resulting in a severe injury to the Sunbird senior playing in his final match. Despite the fact that Pacheco was the last defender, which would normally result in a red card, he was only given a yellow card on the play.

"It hurts when you have your go-to guy go down on a controversial call," said head coach Jaime Ramirez. "We were just about to get that third goal and it instead put us in a very difficult situation in terms of continuing our attack and creating those scoring opportunities.

"It was in my opinion a red card. The goalkeeper came out and took him out. Took him out of a scoring opportunity. When you do that it's an automatic red. I'm disappointed. It is part of the game, it's part of the challenge that you face. There will be controversy, there will be challenges that test your character. My hope is that our guys will learn from this experience and that we'll have an opportunity to be back at this tournament next year."

Islas tried to fight through the pain but was only able to re-enter in the closing minutes and was unable to be as effective. It was an unfortunate end to a stellar career for the FPU senior who scored his 56th career goal earlier in the day to pass his head coach Ramirez for third all-time at FPU.

Alex Anderson got the Lancers on the board four minutes after the Islas injury with a goal in the 63rd minute to make it 2-1. Each team had many chances in the next 15 minute span but neither were able to capitalize. The Lancers scored the equalizer on a Paul Oliver header off a corner kick in the 82nd minute, setting the stage for Hope's heroics in the closing seconds. It was the second straight NCCAA national title for CBU.

"It was a fantastic match and definitely a a match worthy of its label," said Ramirez. "After the two goals they were obligated to come at us and they did a very good job. Hats off to them; Ryan has a good group. My heart goes out to our guys though. I'm as proud as can be of our players. They really left it all out on the field"

It was the third time this season FPU and CBU had met up as the Lancers avenged a 3-1 loss to the Sunbirds in the West Region final. In each of the three matches, FPU scored in the first five minutes off PacWest goalie of the year Pacheco.

After the game Islas was named to the all-tournament team along with Nogales and Ivan Mirkovic, who was named the tournament's defensive MVP.

FPU ends the season with a record of 18-5 and saw its 14-match winning streak come to an end. It was the fourth time the Sunbird men's soccer program has finished as a national runner-up, with the previous three times coming in the NAIA (1984, 1985, 2003).

The Sunbirds graduate two of the program's top all-time players in Islas and Fabricio Nazare, but return a loaded roster for the 2013 season that includes Nogales and Silva up top, with Mirkovic and goalie Fabian Rangel in the back. It was also the final match for senior starters Rodrigo Vianna and Jorge Dominguez.

FPU will also look to return some key players that were injured for much of the 2012 season with defender Adrian Arias and midfielder Eric Velarde, each of whom were in the starting lineup at the beginning of the season.