(photo by Courtney Metzger)

HONOLULU, Hawai`i--UH Hilo scored three times during a stretch of 20 minutes in the first half to help launch them to a 4-1 men's soccer victory on Saturday over host Chaminade at St. Louis Field.

It was the first match of the 4-game spring season for the Vulcans, while Chaminade dropped to 0-2-0. The Vulcans will play again at St. Louis on Sunday, this time taking on Hawaii Pacific, start time is 11 am.

UH Hilo's four goals came from four different newcomers, and freshman Christian Souza (Kapolei, Hawaii/Damien Memorial HS) had three saves in his goalkeeper debut.

"For not having played a game in so long, I thought that the guys showed really well," Vulcan head coach Paul Regrutto said. "Of course we have tons of things to work on, but it was a great first step."

The Vulcans fell behind early when Chaminade's Tasman Turner scored off a corner kick just ten minutes into the contest. But the Vulcans rebounded ten minutes later with a barrage of goals over a 20-minute stretch.

The equalizer came from Luca Lippert, a senior transfer from Northern Michigan, at 21:10. Next, John Grover (Fr., Hilo/Waiakea HS) took a pass from Tommy Seaver and dropped it past the Silverswords keeper to make it 2-1 at 33:33. Eight minutes later, Tom Vorkastner (Fr., Germany) put up UHH's third goal with an assist from Julian Garcia (41:22). 

The Vulcans tacked on one more goal in the second half (74:27) off the foot of David Mayser (RS-Fr., Germany) on a penalty kick. 

UH Hilo had seven shots in the match, five of them on goal. CUH had 10 shots, four of them on goal. 

"I was very happy with the overall team performance," Regrutto added. "I though everyone made a real positive contribution. Every player stepped on the field and did his job. We showed good team spirit in coming back from a 1-0 deficit. When we scored, it was in a variety of ways and that's a positive."