The Eagles continued their undefeated start with a four-goal victory over the San Diego Christian College Hawks on Oct. 8. Not only are they leading the Golden State Athletic Conference with a 5-0-1 conference record, the Eagles’ defense is fueling their incredibly successful season.

First Goal of the Season

Although the game remained scoreless through nearly the whole first period, freshman midfielder Hali Oakes put the Eagles on the board at 42:50 with her first goal of the season. From there, Biola padded their lead with three goals in the second period.

At 66:40, senior forward Taylor Venegas put the Eagles up 2-0. Junior forward Samantha Verduzco and Margaret Guadarrama followed suit, scoring just over 10 minutes of each other.

Beyond Stellar Defense

One goal would have sufficed for the Eagles against the Hawks because of their beyond stellar defense. They held off seven shots made by the Hawks in the first period and prevented San Diego from making any shots in the second. Freshman goalkeeper Christina Rodriguez added two saves to her statsheet.

“The most important job for the defense is to keep the ball out of the net, and I know for us four in the backline, that is our goal every game,” said sophomore defender Madyson Brown. “If we are able to keep the other team from scoring, we simply can not lose the game.”

This is not the first game the backline has put up impressive defensive numbers. In fact, the women’s soccer team leads the GSAC with only five allowed goals and are sixth in saves. Rodriguez is also present near the top of a few major defense leaderboards. She leads GSAC with her .896 save percentage, is tied for second with five shutouts and is third with 43 saves. Her success earned Rodriguez the GSAC defender of the week award on Oct. 10.

“She is a huge part of our success this season,” Brown said. “It is her first year on the team, but she is a leader and a confident defender of our goal.”

As the season winds down, the Eagles wrap up their road trip with a match against Hope International University on Oct. 19 at 12 p.m.