Biola opens soccer season with 0-0 tie
Biola's Izaac Bausch (6) leaps on a scoring attempts against Westmont in their men's soccer exhibition game at Biola University in La Mirada on Tuesday Jan. 27, 2021. The team played their first game in 14-months. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
LA MIRADA -- For the first time in over 15 months, the Biola University men’s soccer team played an actual game.
After the pandemic delayed the start of the 2020 season until last Tuesday, the Eagles hosted NAIA powerhouse Westmont College of Santa Barbara in a non-conference exhibition game.
The final outcome was a 0-0 tie on the Biola campus at Al Barbour Field. With the game being just an exhibition, both coaches agreed to let the game end in a tie in regulation with no overtime.
Both teams were just glad to finally get on the field after months of practice.
“Of course the guys are disappointed not to win,” first-year coach Torrey Stricklin said. “It’s always the goal when we step on the field is to win. But, at the end of the day to be out here to be competing, doing what we love, is a blessing that we’re not going to take for granted again. I’m just really proud of the guys.
“This program has been through a lot over the last 15 months, with the coaching change and then the team went five months without knowing who their next head coach was going to be. Last semester was a blessing to train, but there were so many protocols and restrictions. We’ve had three weeks of real soccer practice where we could do more realistic soccer activities. This is the first time since I’ve been hired that we’ve played against somebody else.”
On a chilly night, both teams played an even first half with no actual serious shots on goal.
Biola's Aidan Hill (23) battles a Westmont defender. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
Westmont, who spent most of last season ranked 5th nationally in the NAIA, held a slight 6-5 advantage on shots taken in the game.
It took until the 16th minute for an attempt at a shot, as Biola junior defender Izaac Zausch sent the ball way wide on the left side of the Westmont goal keeper.
“He’s just a really good player,” said Stricklin, of Zausch, who transferred in from St. Edward’s University of Austin, Texas. “He’s calm on the ball and organizes the team in front of them and is an ultra competitor.”
Zausch was chosen as “Man of the Match” for the Eagles.
“I think we’ve all been a good fit together,” said Zausch of his teammates. “It’s just finding the right guys and we were very strong defensively (Tuesday), but we just didn’t have much up top (offensively). Our back line had a really strong performance.”
In addition to Zausch, junior defender Lawrence Kwazema and sophomore defender Ruben Neubauer kept the Warriors at bay.
Eleven minutes (34th minute) before half, Kwazema made a nice block of Westmont forward Samuel Tuscano at the top of the box.
Kwazema said of the first game in awhile, “it feels great to be back and to have the taste of a game. We haven’t played in awhile and we’re all just excited to have this opportunity to play again.
“We came into this game knowing that (Westmont) was a good team and just tried to work hard and stay together and make it difficult for them. We just work hard for one another.”
Just seconds before the first half horn sounded, Biola senior forward Jack MacDonald tried to head the ball into the right side of the goal, but the keeper made an easy stop.
“Time was running out and we had to make something happen,” said MacDonald, who was second on the team last season with four goals. “Izaac (Zauseh) and I locked eyes and we had 10 seconds to try and get something on goal, so we put it up top and it was a 50/50 that I was able to get it on target, but it was a little far out to get in.”
Every player, including MacDonald, felt ecstatic to finally get to play against an opponent other than themselves in practice.
“It felt so good to play with my teammates (Tuesday),” MacDonald said. “It was awesome to just even see my teammates with their face masks off and the smiles on their faces when they do something good and the emotion. Also, it was easier to breathe.”
All bench players, coaches and support staff had masks on, but the players were allowed to play mask free.
No fans were allowed to watch, which will go for the rest of the abbreviated season at the games. However, a few students were clever enough to social distance themselves and on three of the four levels of the parking garage to the south of the field took in the action.
One of the faster players for Stricklin’s squad is junior midfielder Henry Reeves. Reeves, who spent a good part of the game running up and down the outside edges of the field making plays for teammates, but the Warrior defense stopped anything from getting close to a good shot.
“In our formation I ask a lot of Henry Reeves and (junior defender) Haiko Hovak, who plays on the opposite side,” Stricklin said. “They have a lot of responsibility in every phase of the game for us when we’re attacking, defending or transitional moments.
“We ask a lot from them. They are very fit, they are very athletic and they are really competitive guys.”
In the second half, both teams picked up the pace and Biola controlled parts of the middle to late part of the half, but couldn’t penetrate the defense to get a scoring opportunity.
“I can’t tell you how excited I was to be back out on the field,” Reeves said. “I haven’t done this in a year I think. To step out on the field with the new team was very exciting and we were all amped.
“We did pretty well for our first game in months.”
Stricklin summed up the play of both teams and the lack of chances.
“I think both teams lacked creativity on the attack,” he said. “The combination of good organized defense, and when you don’t play a lot, it’s tough to score in soccer anyway, so there is a lack of fluidity and a lack of understanding, which is why there weren’t many great chances (Tuesday).”
Playing in goal in a game for the Eagles for the first time in 27 months was 6-4 senior keeper Luis Rodriguez.
“I was out for a year because of (knee surgery), then Covid took us out for another year,” said Rodriguez, who was the 2018 PacWest Goalkeeper of the Year. “It’s been a long time coming. There were no shots on target. I thought it was a strong defensive performance.
“This was the first time that we played 11 on 11. I’m excited to get back after it this week. We’ll get to watch film, which we haven’t gotten to watch, because we haven’t had film to watch. It’ll be nice to be able to see the film and break it down.”
Rodriguez will be alternating with sophomore JD Gunn this season in the remaining games. Gunn was named to the PacWest second team in 2019.
The Eagles will open a shortened PacWest Conference schedule (four games) Wednesday, February 3 at Point Loma. Game time is 11 am.
Men’s and Women’s basketball wrap-ups vs. APU
Both the men and women opened PacWest play last weekend against Azusa Pacific University in a home-and-home series.
On night one at Chase Gymnasium last Friday, the women fell to the Cougars, 66-63, when they couldn’t get the tying three-point shot off at the end of the game.
Junior guard Aysia Johnson led the Eagles with 16 points.
“The last play didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to,” Biola Women’s coach Alan Nakamura said. “We have a lot to learn from this game and polish.
“I kind of like playing the same team two days in a row. We can do some good preparation. After each game we can see which team can learn the most.”
Game two on Friday night saw the men’s team thoroughly dominate APU and came away with an 86-77 win. Biola built up the lead to a game-high 17 points in the first half.
Michael Bagatourian led Biola with a game-high 22 points.
The next day saw a double defeat to the Cougars, as the Biola men lost, 77-68, and the women fell, 66-49.
The men were led by a career-high 24 points by junior forward Jesse Elrod and the women were led by senior forward Jazz Benn with 12 points.
Both teams play Point Loma today (Jan. 29) and Saturday in PacWest action.
Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive opens season
The women opened the season with a 169-130 victory over NCAA DI California Baptist in a dual meet at the Riverside campus.
Top freshman Meghan Tolman led with two individual first-place finishes in the 50 Free (24.32) and 100 Breaststroke (1:05.52) and swam a leg on the winning 400 Medley Relay.
Also with two wins each were Kolya Vos (100 Free, 52.99) and 200 Free (1:54.87) and Liza Parahnevich (100 Backstroke, 1:00.84) and the 200 Backstroke (2:09.98).
“What I saw was a team on a mission,” Biola Men’s and Women’s coach Ryan Kauth said. “On a mission to earn respect from anybody that’s looking at the results from this meet.”
The men’s team lost, 182-109. They didn’t win any individual events but captured first in the 200 Free Relay. Jake Michelsen, Jonas Huckabay, Patrick Waggoner and Tanner Smith finished two seconds ahead of CBU with a time of 1:25.91.
The swim teams will travel to Santa Barbara Saturday (Jan. 30) for a tri-meet against Westmont and Simpson University at noon.