BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Coming off their first loss of the season just two days ago, the 22^nd-ranked Regis University men's soccer team (4-1) got back on the right track with a blistering 4-1 victory over the Western Washington University Vikings (1-3) in Washington on Saturday evening.
 
How It Happened: The scoring started early for Regis as senior defender Sam Gardner got on the board in the first 2:40 of the match. Gardner made his way into the box and got his head on a cross from graduate student Kevin Cela, beating the keeper on the far post from about eight yards away.
 
The Rangers were outshot 7-5 in the first half, but RU capitalized on their attempts as they netted two more goals before the halftime break. Senior Michael Jimenez hammered a shot from around 25 yards out that was too hot for the goalkeeper to handle as the ball deflected off his hands and into the net for RU's second goal of the game.
 
Regis got another goal to go up three goals in the game when junior Vilhjamur Kaldal struck a first-time shot off a cross from graduate student John Halter. It was a wonderful first 45 minutes for the visiting Rangers who were surely retaliating after their 2-0 loss to No. 11 Seattle Pacific University a couple days earlier.
 
The second half featured a goal from the home team after a through ball put one of the Vikings in one-on-one with senior goalkeeper Cooper Erickson with 49:57 on the clock. RU countered with another goal 10 minutes later as graduate student Jean Carre finessed his attempt out of the goalkeepers reach for his first goal of the year. Halter picked up a second assist on Carre's goal. It was the only shot that Regis had in the second half, but it was all they needed to put away WWU 4-1 upon the conclusion of the 90 minutes.
 
Game Notes: Halter led the team with two assists in the match while playing 73 minutes. Cela picked up the other assist on the opening goal from Gardner, both of which were firsts for the two players this season. Kaldal's 42^nd minute goal puts him in a share for the team lead with two goals and puts him on top with six points. As mentioned earlier, Carre had been waiting for the right moment to get his first goal of the season, and that moment presented itself in the second half of this contest. Halter now leads the team with three assists this season.
 
After this four-goal performance from the Rangers, they now lead the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) in scoring average (2.60 goal per game) having scored 13 goals in five games. Halter is fourth in the conference with his three assists and Kaldal's six points rank in the top-10. Erickson picked up the win as he improved to 3-1 on the season and is now fifth in the RMAC with 1.146 goals against average this far. His save percentage is sixth overall in the conference at .722.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: The No. 22 ranked Regis University men's soccer team will play their final two non-conference games of the season on the road traveling to Metropolitan State University of Denver on Thursday, September 23 for a match at 6 p.m. Following this game, the team will make their way to Pueblo, Colorado to take on the Colorado State University Pueblo ThunderWolves on Sunday, September 26 at 1 p.m.