TURLOCK — Take away the first 20 minutes of Saturday night's match, the Stanislaus State Warriors played nearly flawlessly as they scored four unanswered goals to defeat Fresno Pacific, 4-1.

Newcomer Gabby Squarcia introduced herself to Warrior Nation with two goals in the first half as the 10th ranked Warriors even up their record to 1-1 and finished second in the Warrior Challenge. Nicole Bare and Jordan Moineau netted second half goals for the runaway result.

Azusa Pacific went 2-0 after a 2-0 win in the afternoon over Cal State East Bay to claim the 2015 title. APU goalkeeper Sarah Klinkenberg received the Golden Glove Award and Mayra Almazan was the tournament MVP.

"It's nice to bounce back with a win like that. FPU brought some great pressure and energy," head coach Gabriel Bolton said. "It took us about the first 20 minutes to solve their pressure but once we did we really performed well."

The Warriors had trouble organizing on defense against the Fresno Pacific pressure up top early on. The Sunbirds got on the board first in the fifth minute on a messy goal allowed by Stanislaus. Four players — two from each side — played playground soccer and knocked the ball around in front of the goal with Amber Rodriguez putting her foot on the ball last past Chelsea Lewandowski to make it 1-0 FPU.

Then, Squarcia entered the match 20 minutes in.

After warming up her legs with a high shot in the 23rd minute, Squarcia dribbles around two defenders and blasted a 18-yard shot to the left post to tie the game at 23:34. Then, just before the 45th minute mark, Squarcia finished a run set-up by two beautiful passes from Moineau and Amanda Woodhouse to make it 2-1 at intermission.

"Gabby fits our style of play perfectly. She is a skillful attacking player who is clinical in front of the goal. She is an absolute joy to watch play," commented Bolton.

The second half was pretty much all Stanislaus as they out-shot Fresno Pacific, 8-2, in the final 45.

Nicole Bare scored on a header from a Dani Rodrigues corner kick in the 51st minute for the 3-1 score. Then Moineau and Sabrina Williamson worked a give-and-go from another corner kick play in the 83rd minute for the fourth goal.

Bolton also noted the efforts of the non-starters on the night: "We had fantastic contributions off the bench. Mandy (Woodhouse), (Nicole) Larson, Bella (Rivera), Gabby, Montse (Gabriella Vargas) all were big time for us tonight.  You need those bench contributions to be good at this level."

Stanislaus State will have a short break as the Warriors host Southern Oregon on Monday night at 7 p.m. SOU is coached by former Warrior assistant Jenni Rosenberg while her assistant Lauren Thornton was on the Warriors' 2014 West Region Championship squad.

WARRIOR CHALLENGE
Tournament Champion: Azusa Pacific

All-Tournament Team
Golden Ball Award (MVP): Mayra Almazan, Azusa Pacific
Golden Glove Award (Best Goalkeeper): Sarah Klinkenberg, Azusa Pacific

Haley Fisher, F, Azusa Pacific
Katelyn Rogers, F, Azusa Pacific
Allyn Brown, MF, Azusa Pacific
LIndsey Ryals, MF, Azusa Pacific
Alyssa Nakaguchi, MF, Fresno Pacific
Mariah Montoya, F, Fresno Pacific
Janelle Herrera, D, Cal State East Bay
Gabby Squarcia, F, Stanislaus State
Maryssa McDuffy, D, Stanislaus State
Nicole Bare, D, Stanislaus State
Sabrina Williamson, Stanislaus State