Denver, Colo.: The 14th-ranked Regis men's soccer team fell behind six seed CSU-Pueblo early but Regis scored six of the next seven goals to beat the Thunderwolves 6-2 in the first round of the RMAC Tournament.  The three seed Rangers were helped by senior Nathan Kafer's hat trick.

Regis (14-2-3) fell behind in the 13th minute when CSU-Pueblo's (7-11-1) Jon-Michael Krasovic took a free kick from Chaz Hendrix and headed it in over Ranger goalkeeper Doug Passalaqua.  The Rangers got on the board first when freshman Justin Ortinau scored on a penalty kick in the 21st minute. 

Kafer scored his first goal in the 33rd minute when sophomore Patrick Freeman crossed the ball into the box and Kafer was able to put his foot on it to put Regis ahead 2-1.  Junior Ben Buhler used his speed and ball skills to dribble through the Thunderwolf defense and blasted a ball from 20 yards out that went into the left side of the net which proved to be the game-winner.

With just 23 seconds left in the first half, CSU-Pueblo took a corner in which Brandon Herre served it into the box and Dustin Geist was able to head it in to cut the lead to 3-2.

Kafer put any chances the Thunderwolves thought they had when he scored his next two goals in the 60th and 75th minutes both unassisted to record the hat trick.  Kafer is now just one goal from tying the Regis record for goals in a career of 44 set by Lance Snodgrass.  Freshman Nduoma Chilaka finished off the scoring for Regis off an assist from Kafer.

Regis took 25 shots, while CSU-Pueblo was limited to just seven.  There were 23 corner kicks taken with Regis taking 14 of them.

The Rangers now advance to the RMAC Semifinals where they will take on Fort Lewis on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Golden, Colo. on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines.

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