Fresno Pacific fell in their first ever Pacific West match 4-2 to California Baptist. The Sunbirds were dealt two early red cards in the second half with a 2-1 lead and the 35 minutes remaining in the match was just too long for the Sunbirds to hang on.

Senior forward Paul Islas recorded his third goal of the season just four minutes into the match off a great through ball from Fabricio Nazare. Islas did the rest putting a great move on PacWest Pre-Season Goalkeeper of the Year Joey Pacheco for the score.

The Sunbirds had a number of chances following the goal and finally capitalized again in the 32nd minute when Nazare found himself with an open net thanks to the great find by Adrian Arias.

CBU scored late in the first half on a goal from Dominic Escalara to pull the Lancers back within one.

The second half was shaping up to be more of the same before an early red card to forward Gustavo Silva changed the game. Silva was called for an elbow to a California Baptist defender and was ejected from the game.

Shortly after Silva's red card Nazare went in for a tackle at midfield and was dealt a very harsh red card that put the Sunbirds two men down.  

“When you go down a player now you have to restructure everything to drop back and defend,” said Islas. “When you go down two players it's all out defense and you can't do that for 35 minutes straight.”

Fresno Pacific refused to let the Lancers walk away with an easy win as the Sunbirds came out of the second red card with a fire and held CBU at bay.

Junior Luke Tyler and junior Ivan Mirkovic played tough defense along with sophomore Nick Watson and Arias that kept the Lancers at bay until late in the match when CBU started to capitalize on some of the Sunbirds fatigue.

“Guys had excellent effort in the second half,' said Mirkovic. “Unfortunately we didn't get the tie, but that is soccer.”

The Sunbirds even created a number of chances despite the Lancers two man advantage. Islas led the charge and played a number of balls into the box, but FPU was unable to capitalize on the opportunities at goal.

California Baptist finally made the most of their advantage in the 69th minute Alex Alderson stole the ball from the Sunbirds and put it in the back of the net.

FPU was not deterred though as they continued to push forward and get chances. Forward Bruno Pessoa had a chance in the box but Pacheco was able to punch the attempted header away.

Goalkeeper Steven Waite made two spectacular saves to keep the score even at 2-2.

“We really had to make up for four players,” said Ramirez. “You have to make up for the two you lost and the two extra that they have.”

The Lancers constant pressure and some risk taking by FPU led to a couple of wide open chances for the Lancers as they scored in the 81st and 87th minutes that led to the 4-2 win.

“I loved the way that we battled given the circumstances,” said Ramirez. “We did what we could to stay in the game and get the result, but it was insurmountable.”

The two red cards mean that both Silva and Nazare will miss the next game. The Sunbirds play at home Saturday against No. 8 Grand Canyon before heading to Hawaii to play Hawaii-Hilo next Saturday.