POMONA, Calif. - The No. 21 Cal Poly Pomona men's soccer team scored early in each half and topped area foe Azusa Pacific University, 2-0, in its 2024 home opener Saturday night at Kellogg Stadium.

With the result, CPP improves to 2-1 while Azusa Pacific falls to 1-3. The Broncos were picked to place second in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) preseason coaches' poll. The Cougars are favored for sixth in the 14-team Pacific West Conference (PacWest).

Junior midfielder Woody Angell opened the scoring at just the 8:45 mark, finding the bottom left corner for his second goal of 2024, both now game-winners, to lead the team in each category in the early going.

The goal came on the first shot of the contest by either team, with true freshman midfielder Daniel Gutierrez gaining credit for the assist for his first collegiate point. Angell now has seven goals in the Green and Gold, four of them game deciders.

True junior forward Jakob Singh, making his 2024 debut off the bench, then doubled the advantage within three minutes of the restart, at 47:58. Fellow junior Marcus Jorgensen and fifth-year senior Max Laguna were each credited with assists. It was Singh's seventh career goal, Jorgensen's second assist as a second-year Bronco, and Laguna's ninth collegiate helper.

In between the two CPP scores, redshirt junior midfielder Christian Bru saw his dangerous shot cleared away by a defender for a team save.

Fourth-year junior goalkeeper Luke Garciduenas did not have to make a single save for the Broncos in posting his seventh career clean sheet in his 15th collegiate start. Alexis Rodriguez, himself a junior, came up with six stops for the visitors, four of them following the interval.

CPP outshot APU 14-4 on the night. The Broncos did not allow a single shot attempt over the first 45 minutes, and did not surrender one shot that was directed on target, hence Garciduenas finishing without a save. Veteran defenders Jorgensen and tri-captains Fin Jackson and Jasper Winslow were among those most responsible for that stellar effort, with Winslow starting in his 2024 debut after having to sit out last week.

Up Next
Cal Poly Pomona continues this season-long four-game home stand by welcoming a pair of Colorado clubs in to Kellogg Stadium next weekend. The Broncos will first take on MSU Denver on Friday, Sept. 20, in primetime at 7 p.m., before facing Colorado School of Mines on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m. All home contests have live streaming video through FloSports.

Bronco Bits

• CPP is 53-16-18 (.713) overall and an even 2-2-1 in home openers under sixth-year (fifth season) head coach Matt O'Sullivan.
• O'Sullivan is now just two victories shy of supplanting current UC Irvine leader Yossi Raz (54 from 2013-16) as the winningest head coach in program history.
• Luke Garciduenas and Fin Jackson played the full 90 minutes.
• Redshirt junior Christian Bru earned his first start of 2024 and second of his career.
• Cal Poly Pomona leads the all-time series, 16-8-1, with four straight victories (12-2 aggregate score) and a 9-1 mark over the last 10 meetings.
• The Broncos are 9-3 against the Cougars in Pomona and 4-1 under O'Sullivan (2-0 at home).
• CPP is 68-23-16 as a nationally-ranked program since 2002, including 30-10-15 under O'Sullivan.