It wasn’t fun in the California sun for the Simon Fraser University men’s soccer team last weekend.
The team got burned on the road in their first loss of the 2014 season 2-1 against the Azusa Pacific Cougars. (Azusa California is about 39 kilometres from Los Angeles, for the record.)
The Clan are now also 2-1 in non-conference play.
“It was a good battle between two quality teams, but unfortunately we were not able to take care of business,” said Clan head coach Alan Koch, in a press release.
In hindsight, the writing was on the wall (in the sand, to keep the California beach theme going).
The Cougar’s took control in the fourth minute of the game between the two top NCAA Division II teams when Cougar Luke Ackerman got a rebound goal.
The Clan answered, tying the game 1-1 in the eighth minute of play with Jovan Blagojevic heading a free kick into the goal.
That was it until near the end of the second half, when APU was able to capitalize on three consecutive Clan fouls. C. Garcia-Partida was able to get it past the post, making it 2-1 for the Cougars.
SFU had several tries at net following the APU goal but wasn’t able to score.
“We need to make sure that we have an excellent week of training before we travel to Bellingham next weekend as Western Washington is always a difficult opponent,” said Koch.
The Clan continues on the road for the game against WWU on September 20 when they will open their Great Northwest Athletic Conference season. Kick-off is at 7 p.m.
