After falling behind 2-0 in the first twenty minutes of play, Westmont Men's Soccer (1-1) put up five goals to claim a decisive 5-2 win over Bethel (0-1-1) of Tennessee at the Azusa Pacific Cougar Classic on Saturday. Midfielders Jonathon Schoff and Anthony Niboli each recorded two goals and senior forward Jake Joyner scored an unassisted goal from 25 yards out.

The Wildcats of Bethel scored both of their goals within a three minute period. Dwayne Smith scored in the seventeenth minute on a low shot to the far post from 12 feet away. Smith figured into another goal in the twentieth minute when he crossed the ball from the left side to Steven Short who was able to score on one touch.

"It was a little bit of an odd game in the sense that I thought we were in control of the whole game, but as we did on Friday, we gave up a couple of goals on the counter attack," said head coach Dave Wolf. "It was a bit of shocker to us. We were down 2-0 but felt good about the way we were playing."

The Warriors cracked the scoreboard in the thirty-eighth minute when Niboli headed a cross from senior forward Anthony Schneider to the far post. The goal proved to be the beginning of a comeback that would continue shortly after the end of intermission.

"Probably the key moment of the game was the first goal," said Wolf. "Andy got loose and again served a really good ball into the box. Tony got up real well to head home. It restored our confidence a little bit.

"Even though we were down at half 2-1, Bethel was really starting to suffer physically from the day before when they went to double-overtime with Azusa," assessed Wolf. "Because we can play some people, we just kept going at them.

"We've got six players we can play up front," explained Wolf. "It means less playing time for them individually, but more effectiveness while they are on because they are fresher. We kept coming at them and they couldn't contain that group of guys up front."

In the fiftieth minute, Schoff scored the equalizer off a pass from Joyner. Three minutes later, the Warriors took the lead when Niboli struck again, this time assisted by senior Sammy Montemer. Joyner scored his goal in the seventy first minute, curling his long distance shot over the Wildcats' keeper. The icing on the cake came in the seventy-fifth minute when a shot by sophomore Dan Sargent rebounded off the keeper to the feet of Schoff who put it away.

"Two days in a row we fought back which is sign of some character and determination," said Wolf. "I also thought the chemistry of the team was very good. There was no finger pointing. When we went down a second goal I thought, 'that will test our chemistry.' But they kept going and kept battling."

The Warriors out shot the Wildcats 20-8 and placed eleven of their 20 attempts on target. Westmont also held an 8-5 advantage on corner kicks.

"We didn't score a lot of goals last year even with Johnny (Alcaraz)," said Wolf, referring to last year's leading scorer. "To score seven the first weekend feels pretty good – and we scored five unanswered today. Once we got on a roll, we were able to attack in waves."

This weekend, Westmont travels to Beaverton, Oregon to compete against #5 Simon Fraser (B.C.) on Friday and #24 Concordia (Ore.) on Saturday at the Nike Campus. Both games are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.