It is official the Sunbirds are off to their best start in school history. With a pair of wins Saturday over Merced College and Delta College Fresno Pacific moved to 7-1 on the season heading into the heart of their schedule.
FPU was led by junior goalkeeper Jake Finney who was phenomenal in goal making 27 saves between the two games including two penalty saves against Delta College in game one.
“Finney played great. His defensive efforts in the goal are what allowed to do what we did,” said head coach Bryan Suhovy.
Glenn Lyon led the Sunbirds on offense in game netting five goals for Fresno Pacific who scored at least three goals in every quarter in the 15-5 win.
Freshman standout Daniel Seymour and redshirt sophomore Ian Roos scored three goals apiece and Justin Lopez-Lamb added two.
“I was real happy with how we played. Delta had some strong players that we had to watch out for. We made sure to stick to our game plan and play consistent and it paid off,” said Suhovy.
The second game was equally impressive for the Sunbirds who stifled Merced College in a 13-1 domination of the Blue Devils.
The scoring was much more balanced as seven players for Fresno Pacific scored.
FPU was led by Zltako Vlasic and Roos who scored three goals each followed by Seymour and Matt Boogaard with two.
Ross Cochran, Lopez-Lamb and Andreas Sahlberg also scored for the Sunbirds who are 7-0 when scoring at least 10 goals.
"Merced came out very defensively minded and took our center options away. This forced us to utilize our outside shooters. Once we adjusted and got into a consistent flow we starting putting a few away,” said Suhovy.
The bigger story was the one goal FPU gave up marking the first time the programs history the Sunbirds have allowed only a single goal.
“Our big focus has been stepping up our defense. We did just that and held them to only one goal,” said Suhovy. “Any shot they did get off Finney was right there ready to stop it. I'm pleased with the play this weekend and I'm excited to see what we do as we head into the middle of our season."
Fresno Pacific will be in Riverside next weekend for the Lancer Invitational.
