MEN'S SOCCER WEEKLY
UH Hilo Overall Record: 1-4            UHH PacWest Record: 0-1

UH Hilo to host Cougars, Silverswords (Paiea Stadium, Kamehameha School, Keaau)
Tuesday, Sept. 25, 4:30 p.m.: vs. Azusa Pacific (5-1-1 overall / 2-0 PacWest)
Saturday, Sept. 29, 12:30 p.m.: vs. Chaminade (1-2 overall / 1-1 PacWest)
(Link to Live Stats for all matches available at www.hiloathletics.com)
 
Hilo Headlines: After road trips to Washington state and Oahu, the Vulcans return to the Big Island to host Azusa Pacific and Chaminade this week. The Tuesday match with the Cougars will be a PacWest match-up, while the Vulcans-Silverswords is non-conference.

Welcome Home, Paul: The home matches this week mark the return of new head coach Paul Regrutto. Regrutto coached the very first Vulcan men's team in 2006, and now returns 12 years later to take over the reins.

Lindsey's Life Celebrated: After Tuesday's match with APU and prior to the women's match, the Vulcans will retire the #22 jersey of the late Lindsey Poulsen, former UH Hilo standout (2010-13) who passed away last summer after a long battle with ovarian cancer. The Poulsen family will be in attendance, and all fans wearing anything teal or pink to either match will gain free admission.

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."

Cruel Aftermath: After the upset of the Vikings, you could be sure that Regrutto's Vulcans weren't going to sneak up on anyone in the days following. Saint Martin's, Seattle Pacific, Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade were in wait, dealing UH Hilo four straight losses. After holding WWU out of the goal, the Saints, Falcons, Sharks and Silverswords found the net four times each, with SPU knocking in five.

Busy Man: Senior goalkeeper Nick Williams picked up his first career shutout against Western Washington and was also plenty busy the next two weeks. In fact, he had 12 saves against St. Martin's tying the UH Hilo single-match record in that category, now shared with Paul Elias (2011 vs. Dixie State). He had ten more against Hawai`i Pacific and now has 36 on the season.

By the Numbers: Junior transfer Matt Wilkinson (England/Santa Barbara CC) scored the lone goal versus WWU, and also deposited scores against St. Martin's and Chaminade—both on penalty kicks. Fellow newcomers Bryan Gonzalez (Aurora, Colo./Otero JC) and Pedro Werneck (Brazil/West Valley College) have also scores, and Alen Acosta has an assist.

Conference or Non-Conference?: UH Hilo's match against Hawai`i Pacific officially goes down as a non-conference match, as the Vulcans and Sharks will play their PacWest counter on Oct. 20 on the Big Island. The match against Chaminade WAS a PacWest match. The two teams will play again this Saturday in a non-league tilt.

Cougar, Chaminade Clippings: Tuesday's opponent Azusa Pacific comes to the Big Island sitting in first place in the Pacific West Conference. They opened conference play with island wins over Chaminade (3-0) and Hawai`i Pacific (5-2). They also have wins over Cal State Dominguez Hills, Seattle Pacific, and Western Washington, with a tie versus UC San Diego and a tie against Westmont to notch a 5-1-1 overall record. They have scored 19 times in seven matches, led by Gabriel Costa's five goals and an assist. Goalkeeper Nathanael Linquist has given up just one goal (0.28 GAA) in four matches. The Cougars won the lone match played between the two schools last year in Azusa (3-1), and they lead the all-time series, 5-0. Chaminade will have back-to-back matches with the Vulcans, with momentum from Saturday's 4-2 win in Honolulu. They are 1-2 on the season, with losses to Azusa Pacific and Hawaii Pacific. Four different players have scored this year for the Silverswords, all in the match against the Vulcans. The Vulcans and Silverswords split a pair of matches in 2017, and UH Hilo leads the all-time series between the two, 18-5-4.

What's Next: After this week's home matches, the Vulcans will head back to the mainland for a pair of conference matches in the bay area, against Academy of Art (Oct. 4) and Holy Names (Oct. 6). They then return home for four straight matches, Oct. 11-23.

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.