SANTA BARBARA, California – Hawai'i Hilo Men's Soccer fell to Point Loma, 4-1, in the Pacific West Conference Championships postseason tournament title match on Saturday afternoon at the La Playa Stadium at Santa Barbara City College.
The Vulcans were the only team to hand the Sea Lions a loss during the conference regular season — a 2-0 shutout on Oct. 23 in Hilo — but had a tough go around this time with PLNU managing to get on the scoreboard in the 15th minute (Inaki Santamarina).
Then about 60 ticks off the clock later, Hawai'i Hilo's Paul Waschkau was assessed a red card after facing a PLNU attacker in a one-on-one defense situation. The senior goalkeeper was ejected from the contest and the Vulcans were forced to play the rest of the match with one less member on the field.
Still, Hawai'i Hilo held strong with fellow senior Adam Frank making his fourth appearance in goal, but the Sea Lions managed to go up two scores with a goal by Cole Friesen in the final minutes before halftime.
The Vulcans had their scoring opportunities come and go before finally putting a beauty of a shot through in the 86th minute with Lukas Stark knocking in a vintage bicycle-kick goal through the upper-left corner.
With time winding down and the number of opportunities diminishing, the Vulcans brought all 10 players out front to try to capture the equalizer, but the Sea Lions managed to flip the script twice for back-to-back easy scores on an empty net.
GAME NOTES
- First goal in NCAA Division II for Lukas Stark.
- Hawai'i Hilo: 11-5-2 Overall (7-2-1 PacWest)
- Point Loma: 15-3-1 Overall (9-1-0 PacWest)
- Saturday's championship match was moved from Westmont's Thorrington Field to Santa Barbara City College's La Playa Stadium due to inclement weather.
UP NEXT
- NCAA Selection Show: Nov. 17 on NCAA.com
- Hawai'i Hilo came in ranked at No. 12 in the latest official NCAA Super 4 Region Rankings. PacWest, GNAC and CCAA, Lone Star Conference and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champions receive automatic bids with five more teams selected from the final region rankings in qualifying for the NCAA Super 4 Regional Rounds.
PACWEST CHAMPIONSHIPS (SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA)
- Thursday, Nov. 13: Semifinal Round (Westmont College)
- (#1) Point Loma 4 - (#4) Fresno Pacific 1
- (#2) Vanguard 1 - (#3) Hawai'i Hilo 2
- Saturday, Nov. 15: Championship Match (Santa Barbara City College)
- (#1) Point Loma 4 - (#3) Hawai'i Hilo 1
