MEN'S SOCCER WEEKLY
UH Hilo Overall Record: 3-10                        UHH PacWest Record: 2-6

UH Hilo to Wrap Up Season on the Road with Trio of Matches                                     
Monday, Oct. 29, Noon PT @Dominican (5-7-2 overall / 2-4-1 PWC)—San Rafael
Thursday, Nov. 1, Noon PT @ND de Namur (4-8-2 overall / 3-3-1 PWC)—Belmont
Saturday, Nov. 3, 5 pm PT @Fresno Pacific (11-2-1 overall / 6-2 PWC)—Fresno
(Link to Live Stats for all matches available at www.hiloathletics.com)
 
Hilo Headlines: The Vulcans will travel to northern California for their final three matches of the 2018 season, with three games in six days. Wins in a least two of the three matches would give the Vulcans their best record in the last four seasons. 

Sea Creatures Deal Losses to Vulcans: UH Hilo dropped their final two home matches of the year last week, falling to the Sharks of Hawaii Pacific (2-0) and to the Point Loma Sea Lions (3-2). HPU scored both of their goals in the final nine minutes of the match to stun the home team, while second-place Point Loma survived a driving rain storm and a feisty UHH team to salvage a 3-2 win.

10 Was Almost Enough: In the home finale against Point Loma, the Vulcans had to deal with monsoon rains, a very good Sea Lion team, AND playing down a man for the final 80 minutes of the match. The Vulcans lost Jack Stonehouse at 10:20 (red card) and fell behind 1-0 on the same play. The home team was down 3-1 after 68 minutes when a 10-minute delay ensued because the field was unplayable (flooding), but STILL the Vulcans pulled back to within one score when Matt Wilkinson converted his second penalty kick of the day in the 86^th minute. The Vulcans had one more shot on goal on the night, but it was saved by PLNU, which held on for the 3-2 win.

Senior Salute: The Vulcans honored eight seniors before the match against Point Loma for their contributions to UH Hilo athletics. The eight seniors were Andrew Dawrs, Trenton Hooper, Bradley Doyle, Jack Stonehouse, Christian Ohly, Xahil McDonald, Curtis Walker and Nick Williams. All except Williams (injured) started in the match, and Dawrs, making his first start of the season, had two shots on goal to lead the Vulcans.

Paying the Penalty: UH Hilo scored both of the goals against Point Loma on penalty kicks, both by Matt Wilkinson. The junior transfer from Santa Barbara City College (via England) is a perfect 5-for-5 this year in penalty kicks—accounting for five of his nine goals on the year. By contrast, UH Hilo has only had two penalty kicks against them this year, one of which was converted.

Finding the Net: Wilkinson now has nine goals in 13 matches, which ranks sixth in the Pacific West Conference. Those nine goals are now second on the UH Hilo Single Season Top 10 list. The school record for goals in a season is held by Dustin Daley (2007), who had 10. Wilkinson's 18 points is tied for third in that category, with the school record at 23—Daley again, same year.

Minding the Net: Senior goalkeeper Nick Williams missed the match against Point Loma, after getting hurt against Hawaii Pacific. Nonetheless, he has compiled 70 saves in 2018, a new UH Hilo record for a single season, surpassing the previous record of 67 set by Yonha Andrabi in 2012. The Evergreen Valley CC transfer has played two seasons at UHH, but is now only one save shy of tying the career save mark of 120, set by Marc Fournier (2006-07). Earlier this year, Williams had 12 saves against St. Martin's, tying the single-match record set by Paul Elias in 2011 against Dixie State.

Road Foes: The Vulcans will play their final matches of the year, with a chance to get to six wins—which would be the most for the program since 2014 (7-9-2). They will first face Dominican on Monday. If the Penguins don't beat a very strong Fresno Pacific team on Saturday, they will take a four-match losing streak into the encounter against UH Hilo. But Dominican is dangerous, evidence of a sweep of Hawaii Pacific (3-0) and Chaminade (2-0) earlier this month. The Penguins are tough at home, gaining four of their five wins at Kennelly Field (4-2-2). Wilson Briggs leads the team with 11 goals, fifth in the conference. The Vulcans won last years' match between the two schools (3-0), and UH Hilo leads the all-time series, 5-4-1. Notre Dame de Namur is an even 3-3-1 in conference play and is on a two-match winning streak going into a Saturday match at Concordia. The Argonauts have a 2-1 win over Biola to their credit this season, and have the two recent victories over Holy Names (2-0) and Dominican (2-0). NDNU has dual threats on offense in Naia Graham (seven goals) and Josh Santillan (six goals). The Argonauts won last year's match in Hilo (2-1), and they have a commanding lead in the all-time series, 13-1-2. The Vulcans will wrap up the trip and the season at Fresno Pacific, a team that is still in the hunt for a conference title and a regional playoff berth. The Sunbirds have won eight of their last nine matches, with only loss in that string coming against first-place Azusa Pacific, 2-1. FPU has the top scorer in the conference in Anthony Velarde, who has 12 goals but an even more impressive 14 assists (38 points). Jaime Ramirez has been the Sunbird head coach since 1991, and has an all-time record of 327-169-35. The Sunbirds won last year's match in Hilo, 3-2, and FPU has won all six matches played all-time between the two schools.

Around the Loop: Azusa Pacific is still unbeaten in conference play (8-0) and they are 13-1-1 on the year. Point Loma has moved into second place at 6-2-1, followed closely by Fresno Pacific at 6-2. The Vulcans, with the two home losses, dropped to 11^th at 2-6, just behind Holy Names (2-5) and ahead of Academy of Art (1-6-1).

Regional Ratings: The second official NCAA Division II regional ratings came out on October 24. Two more rankings will come out before the final one will be used to help determine the six men's teams that will advance to the NCAA tournament. The conference champion from the PacWest, the CCAA and the GNAC will all gain automatic berths, followed by the next three highest ranked teams. Here is the ranking for Oct. 24….(1) Simon Fraser 14-0, (2) Azusa Pacific 12-1, (3) UC San Diego 11-2-2, (4) Cal State LA 11-2-2, (5) Cal Poly Pomona 11-4, (6) Fresno Pacific 9-2-1, (7) San Francisco State 10-3-3, (8) Chico State 9-4-1.

An Opener to Remember: New leader Paul Regrutto won't soon forget his 2018 debut, when the Vulcans pulled off a 1-0 stunning upset of Western Washington in Bellingham. Despite being out-shot 29-3, UH Hilo scored the lone goal of the match on Matt Wilkinson's shot (Alen Acosta assist). The week previous, the Vikings were ranked No. 13 nationally. "I don't think that I have ever been a part of a match where a team was out-shot 29-3 and still won," Regrutto said afterwards. "We made a lot of game-saving tackles and just didn't give them a clear shot at anything."

The Coach: Paul Regrutto returns to Hawai`i Hilo, the same place that he began his coaching career in 2006. That inaugural Vulcan team finished 5-9-1. He spent the bulk of his coaching career at his alma mater, Colorado State-Pueblo, where he was the head women's coach from 2013-16. He had a 36-31-6 overall record for the Thunderwolves, including a 14-5-1 mark in 2016, leading CSU-Pueblo to their first-ever NCAA berth. He was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. He also served as an assistant coach at Cal State San Bernardino (2012), and from 2007-11 he was the lead assistant for the Thunderwolves men's program.