Nov. 21, 2005

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - No. 5-seed Azusa Pacific made sure they didn't need an extra session for the first time in three matches of the 2005 NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship posting a convincing 4-0 semifinal victory against ninth-seed Hastings College (Neb.) to advance to the school's first championship match appearance.

Azusa Pacific will now face the winner of second-seeded Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and third-seeded Southern Nazarene in the championship match on Tuesday, November 21 at 7 p.m.  If it's Lindsey Wilson, it will be a rematch of last year's NAIA Championship quarterfinal match which saw LWC win 4-3 on PKs after a 1-1 draw following the two overtime sessions.

Azusa Pacific (20-4-0) championship hero Andriy Budnyy (who has two game-winning goal and eight points) helped initiate the first goal for the Cougars at the 22:03 mark finding Brandon Stirm on the left wing, who then served a ball to Sven Simon who struck the volley diagonally from the right back to the far post.

The score remained 1-0 in favor of APU at the intermission, but not after two strong offensive opportunities by each squad.  The Cougars nearly moved ahead 2-0 in the 36th minute when two Budnyy's strikes were thwarted by Hastings' goalkeeper Chris Ladwig and Mark Knust blocked the second, and finally Dustin McBride's attempt was cleared off the line by the Broncos' defense.

Hastings' (19-2-3) strong chance before the half came at the 38:25 mark when Tommy Sawan's shot was just pushed over the cross bar by APU's James Crawford.

Ladwig, who saved six shots in Hastings' quarterfinal victory against top-seeded Rio Grande (Ohio), added another in the 62nd minute stopping Simon's header getting a hand on it to clear it over the cross bar and finished with four saves on the night.

However, just 26 seconds later Ladwig couldn't stop Skelly Kellar's 18-yard strike after it deflected off a Hastings defender.  Stirm fed the ball back to Kellar on a corner kick.

The sense of urgency for Hastings led to an inspired offensive attack for the Broncos and Steve Fausset nearly broke through with two strong strikes in the 69th minute.  Fausset's first came from just outside the six with the first stopped by Crawford and the second hit the cross bar.  Crawford finished with three saves.

At the 76:34 mark, APU's Kolt Callaway made like his namesake golf club manufacturer and chipped a ball high and soft over the head of Ladwig trickling into the net to make it 3-0 in favor of the Cougars on an assist by Chris Batdorf.

The final marker for Azusa came in the 86th minute when Jared Karkas struck off a free kick bending the ball from 18 yards out.

Box Score