IRVINE, California – Hawai'i Hilo Men's Soccer's milestone run came to a heartbreaking end with a second-overtime golden goal defeat to Westmont, 2-1, Thursday afternoon in the semifinal round of the inaugural Pacific West Conference Championships postseason tournament at the Orange County Great Park.
The Vulcans found themselves down early after a foul inside the box resulted in the Warriors converting a penalty-kick attempt in the 10th minute. It wasn't until the 81st minute when Gabriel Gallardo blasted through the back of the net from the left side to get Hawai'i Hilo on the scoreboard with the equalizer.
After a scoreless 10 minutes through the first overtime period, Westmont's Yordan Marinov managed to roll a shot through the posts in the 103rd minute to advance to the title game.
"It was an intense match," second-year head coach Diego Marroquin said. "Slightly unlucky for us maybe in overtime, but I thought the boys played great. To come back down off a penalty kick is really difficult in that type of match but we kept going. Can't say enough positive things about the players."
Hawai'i Hilo closes the season at 11-6-1 (6-4-1 PacWest).
Westmont advances to the PacWest Championship match to take on fourth-seeded Fresno Pacific, who defeated top seed Point Loma earlier in the day.
NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS: The Vulcans did not appear in the last NCAA Division II Regional Rankings released on Wednesday. Twelve teams were listed from Super Region 4, comprised of teams from the PacWest, California Collegiate Athletic Association, Great Northwest Conference, Lone Star Conference and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The final teams will be unveiled during the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.