Sunbirds defeat No. 19 St. Francis
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Fresno Pacific (13-9) had their most challenging weekend of the season as they traveled to Santa Clara for their final tournament of the regular season. The Sunbirds began the weekend 0-3 falling to Brown, No. 13 Davis and No. 10 Concordia, but rallied back to defeat No. 19 St. Francis in the final quarter of the game. The Sunbirds’ win was their first victory over a ranked opponent in program history.
The Sunbirds lost 2-13 to Brown, who will most likely break into the top-20 after their tournament play this weekend, and struggled in their 5-15 loss to Concordia. The Sunbirds’ closest loss was to Davis as they were within two in the fourth quarter but fell behind to lose 5-9.
Gabe Calderon led the Sunbirds with seven goals on the weekend with four coming in the final game against St. Francis.
Coach Brian Suhovy acknowledged, “Gabe really stepped up in our last game picking great shots and shooting lights-out. Freshman
Glen Lyon drew the ejection that resulted in a man-up, and Freshman Sasha Ludwig scored the final goal that clinched the victory.”
Lyon had two goals in their win over St. Francis finishing the weekend with six goals, and Ludwig had two goals for the weekend with his final one coming at the perfect time.
The Sunbirds trailed 4-7 at halftime to St. Francis, but came back to tie the game 8-8 after the third quarter. Ludwig’s final goal came with 1:50 remaining to put the Sunbirds up 12-11.
Riley Warner had 38 saves on the weekend, five of which coming from penalty shot saves, totaling more than the rest of the season combined.
Coach Suhovy continued, “We started off slow but played patient and kept to our game and steadily fought our way back into it. The guys showed a lot of maturity and discipline earning every goal we scored. It was a sweet victory to end a tough weekend beating our first ranked team ever.”
The Sunbirds will take their confidence to their toughest single game of the season as they go up against No. 9 Santa Barbara on Saturday, November 7 on the road.