• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

DENVER, Colo. – The stat sheet showed an even game at the Regis Soccer Pitch. Unfortunately for Seattle Pacific, the scoreboard displayed a different story.

Back-to-back goals during a four-minute span in the second half Wednesday lifted 22nd-ranked Regis to a 3-1 home victory over the SPU men, who ended their four-game, non-conference road trip without a win.

The Falcons (0-4-1) lost their fourth straight game, including all three on a visit to Colorado.

Corner kick attempts were tied at four, as were the foul totals at 10 and the offside count at three. Regis held a slim 12-11 edge in shots.

But the Rangers (4-0) parlayed two more of their shots into goals than SPU to maintain a perfect record.

“We had our chances and it's the same thing as our last couple games, we easily could have scored three or four goals today,” said Falcons coach Mark Collings. “But I told our guys that we have to get back to our identity, and our identity is the ability to defend.”

Trailing 3-0 late in the game, SPU finally got on the board on a five-yard strike by Tyler Schultz (Scottsdale, Ariz.) The junior forward received a looping pass from sophomore Corey McGuire (Vancouver, Wash./Columbia River HS) near the left post and volleyed a shot into the right side of the Regis net.

That was the first score of the season for Schultz, who led the Falcons last year with eight goals.

The Rangers netted one first-half goal on a Justin Ortinau free kick from the top of the penalty area at 24:55.

“Their first goal was against the run of play and they got a fouled called right outside our box” Collings described. “Their kid hit the kick well and it's 1-0. Thirty seconds later though, we go right down and have one from point-blank range and we missed it. That's just how it's gone for us.”

Ortinau set up the second goal with a pass to Nathan Kafer, who broke through the SPU defense for the score at 66:25. Less than four minutes later, at 70:23, Taylor Diem tallied the final Regis goal.

Sophomore goalkeeper Zach Johnson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) was credited with four saves for the Falcons. His Regis counterpart, Doug Passalaqua, stopped six shots.

Wednesday was SPU's fourth road game in 10 days.

“We've played a lot of games on the road in a short period of time. We need to get home, get healthy and sort ourselves out, get ready for conference play,” said Collings. “It will be nice to able to train and work on things. We haven't been able to run a full training session since two days before our first game because of all the travel.”

The SPU men return to Seattle to start Great Northwest Athletic Conference play on Monday, Sept. 20 against Western Washington. Kick-off is 7 p.m. at Interbay Stadium.


NCAA Division II Men's Soccer
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Regis Soccer Pitch/Denver, Colo.

(#22) Regis 3, Seattle Pacific 1

Scoring – 1, RU, Justin Ortinau, 24:55. 2, RU, Nathan Kafer (Ortinau), 66:25. 3, RU, Taylor Diem (Kyle Emge), 70:23. 4, SPU, Tyler Schultz (Corey McGuire), 82:51.

Shots – SPU 11, RU 12.
Saves – SPU 4 (Zach Johnson), RU 6 (Doug Passalaqua).
Corner kicks – SPU 4, RU 4.
Fouls – SPU 10, RU 10.
Offsides – SPU 3, RU 3.
Yellow cards – SPU 3 (Elliot Morton, Jon Pearman, Connor Meppen), RU 3 (Kyle Emge, Bench, Ben Buhler).
Ejections -- None.
Attendance -- 139.

Records –
Seattle Pacific 0-4-1
Regis 4-0-0

Next game –
Western Washington at Seattle Pacific
Monday, Sept. 20, 7:00 p.m. PDT