AZUSA, Calif.—Short of a tie, something had to give tonight when the Hawai`i Hilo and Azusa Pacific men's soccer teams played under the lights at the Cougar Soccer Complex.

Both teams were looking for their first win and it was the host Cougars that got it done during a 3-1 Pacific West Conference victory. APU, coming off a tie with Chaminade on Saturday, improved to 1-1-1 in league play and to 1-5-1 overall. The Vulcans fell to 0-6 and to 0-3 in the PacWest.

Initially, it looked like it would be the Vulcans that would get the monkey off their collective backs. Bryan Reynoso took a pass from Jonathan Garcia and popped it over the goalkeeper's head in the 14^th minute for a 1-0 Hawai`i Hilo lead.

It was Reynoso's second goal of the year and the second assist for Garcia.

But the Cougars answered pretty quickly, just a little over five minutes later (18:52) when Kaleb Armbrust flicked a shot from 10 yards out to the far post to tie the match at 1-1. APU then took the lead just before the end of the first half when Danny Madrigal found the net in the 40^th minute to give the home squad a 2-1 lead at intermission.

After the break, the Vulcans weren't without opportunities. Reynoso had a header that had to be saved in the 52^nd minute, Jesus Ortega had the same at 67 minutes and Omar Machado sent a shot at APU keeper Brendan Fix in the 88^th minute.

But just prior to Machado's shot, Rene Santos sealed the match for the Cougars with a score past UHH keeper Nick Williams at 86:30. Santos' net finder helped give APU a season high in goals (3) this season.

The Cougars had 19 shots on the night with nine of them on goal. The Vulcans had just eight shots, but five of them had to be saved by Fix.

Hawai`i Hilo will now return home after four matches in eight days on the road, hosting Academy of Art on Saturday at Kamehameha School. Start time will be 7 p.m.