POMONA, Calif. - Despite earning a red card early in the second half Thursday, the Cal Poly Pomona men's soccer team kept a 1-0 lead intact to the final horn and topped local rival Azusa Pacific in an exciting match at Kellogg Field.
At 3-0-1 overall, the Broncos are off to the program's best start since 1991. To start the campaign, CPP has posted four-consecutive shutouts while facing 36 shots through those matches. In looking at the program's history once again, only the 1993 and 1998 Bronco teams managed to record four-straight shutouts.
With Thursday's result, the Cougars fall to 2-1. Earlier in the season, APU defeated the No. 2-ranked Simon Fraser squad.
With a tremendous crowd in attendance Thursday at Kellogg Field and both team's bench players standing on their feet for the final 45 minutes, the Broncos broke through for the game's only score at the 45:40 mark.
Daniel Garcia Jr. and
Aaron Macedo combined for a pass that ended up at the foot of
Christian Gonzalez Diaz, who fired a long shot over the goalkeeper's head. It marked the third goal of 2014 for Gonzalez Diaz, a Mission Viejo native.
Exactly nine minutes later, CPP defender
Leonel Espinoza received a red card and that dropped the Broncos' from 11 players to 10.
Junior goalkeeper
Fernando Pablo Quevedo turned in an impressive performance and likely the top highlight of the match was a series of stops he made with APU pressure just a few yards away and hard shots coming at point-blank range.
The Broncos will return to action on Saturday with a 3:30 p.m. road matchup at Cal Baptist.
