Ranger Men's Soccer Pushes #8 Ranked to the Brink in a 1-0 Loss; First loss in Last Six Outings

Denver, Colo.: The Regis Ranger men's soccer team was unbeaten in the last six contests and today hosted #8 Fort Lewis in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match.  The two teams battled for the first 87 minutes and 20 seconds before Joe Barnd scored the winning goal for Fort Lewis in a 1-0 defeat of the Rangers.

Regis (5-3-3, 3-1-3 RMAC) ran into one of the best teams in the nation and stood toe-to-toe with the Skyhawks (10-1-0, 7-0-0 RMAC).  The Regis defense did allow 20 shots but the majority of the shots were contested and did not flirt with going in the goal.

“They stole one today, stated first-year head coach Tony McCall.  "You look at the stats and yeah they had more shots on goal, but I think we had the more clear cut chances, they’re a quality team. They’re a legitimate top ten team no question about it.”

Senior Wally Fink stopped two shots for Regis while Zane Wells of Fort Lewis had one save.  The Rangers allowed just three shots on goal for Fort Lewis.

McCall comments, “At the end of the day we’re very disappointed. We thought that we deserved to go into overtime with them. We played very well, we kept our game plan, we kept our shape, and we made it difficult for them and really made them work hard to drag us down. So that was good.”

Freshman Patrick Bonitatibus led the Rangers with two shots, while senior James Copeland had the lone shot on goal for Regis.

McCall commented on the play of his defense, “Whenever you’re playing against such a dynamic team you have to be able to defend. I think in the past, Regis has been known to let up a lot of really soft goals. Today we defended tremendously well. Ryan Brennan was fabulous at the back, as well as Gary Cole, Pat Freeman and Alex Howieson. 

"Our whole back four was great today," says McCall. "Walter (Fink) once again had the game of his life. But you know what, that’s what you come to expect from these kids. They’re really good players, we’ve got a really good team, we’ve got a fantastic spirit about us.”

Coach McCall reports, “We’ve got some significant players that are hurt and injured. But you know what, we’re deep. Our future is very bright, we’ve got some very talented young players and I honestly couldn’t ask for more.”

Regis will travel to take on crosstown rival Metro State on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver.

Click here for boxscore.