Fresno, Calif. - Four different players scored goals for the Lions as Vanguard University held on for a 4-3 Golden State Athletic Conference men’s soccer victory over the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds. VUSC extended a 2-0 halftime lead to three goals before the Sunbirds made a nearly successful comeback.

Sophomore Adam Holstein and junior Tomislav Colic notched first half goals for the Lions, both coming before the 20th minute. Holstein combined with Victor Tapia and Alejandro Lopez in the 15th minute of play before senior Ryan Marquez pushed a through ball to Colic who doubled VU’s lead in the 19th minute of play.

Vanguard added another goall ten minutes into the second half with senior Eric Nutter getting credit for his second goal of the year in the 55th minute of play. Less than four minutes later, the Lions were whistled for a foul and FPU’s Mihailo Jovanovic connected on a penalty kick to pull within two goals.

However, the Lions responded three minutes later when Colic assisted for Lopez to push VU’s lead back to three goals with under 30 minutes left in the game.

FPU charged back with another penalty kick in the 70th minute and crawled within a goal with an unassisted goal from Guilherme Machado in the 80th minute.

Vanguard’s defense held off the Sunbirds in the last ten minutes to secure the 4-3 victory, helping the Lions improve to7-5-3 overall and 4-2-2 in GSAC, while the Sunbirds dropped to 8-5-1 overall and 4-3-1 in GSAC.

The Lions, who moved into fifth place with tonight’s GSAC win, have two more regular season games remaining, including traveling to No. 11-ranked Biola on Wednesday for 7:00 p.m. matchup with the Eagles.