Just two weeks remain in the Pacific West Conference men’s soccer schedule as the Hawai`i teams visit southern California this week. Last week, Biola might have made the biggest statement by cooling off Hawai`i Hilo and tying defending PacWest title winner Azusa Pacific. Hawai`i Pacific's Gerrit Arzberger had two goals and a assist in a 3-0 win over Fresno Pacific to win Player of the Week, and Chaminade keeper Brandon Yasue had 14 saves during a split of games to gain Defender of the Week honors.

2022 Results/Schedule
2022 Standings
2022 Statistics
NCAA Super Region 4 Rankings
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Hawai`i Pacific’s Gerrit Arzberger, MF, 5-9, Sr., Munich, Germany        
Hawai`i Pacific had just one match last week but made it count with a 3-0 blanking of Fresno Pacific on Oahu. Veteran Gerrit Arzberger put on an offensive show with two goals and an assist as the Sharks improved to 5-4-2 on the season. A graduate senior, Arzberger scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season on HPU’s Senior Night. His eight goals is tied for second in the PacWest, and he leads the conference in points per match (2.43) with 17 total. Arzberger began his Shark career with 2017 and was named to the All-PacWest Conference Third Team. He was a First Team selection in 2019 and Second Team in 2021.
 
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Chaminade’s Brandon Yasue, GK, 6-1, Sr., Honolulu, Oahu                       
It was nearly a perfect week for Chaminade’s Brandon Yasue, who didn’t give up a score for 179 minutes. Only two late goals in the 89^th minute against Azusa Pacific spoiled his clean sheet. Still, he had a shutout against Fresno Pacific with six saves and he totaled eight more saves against the Cougars for a total of 14 for the week. The fourth-year Silversword led the PacWest in Saves Per Match last year (5.42) and leads the same category in 2022 with 5.0. His 45 total saves ranks second in the conference.

BIOLA BESTS VULCANS, TIES COUGARS: The PacWest Team of the Week is the BIOLA EAGLES. Biola earned four points last week with a win over Hawai`i Hilo and a tie with Azusa Pacific. The Eagles moved into a tie with Dominican at the top of the standings with 15 total points (the Penguins were idle except for a 1-0 non-conference loss to UC Santa Cruz). Biola improved to 4-0-3 in PacWest play and also cooled off the Vulcans with the 2-0 win in La Mirada on Saturday. JD Gunn had three saves in the shutout, while the PacWest’s leading scorer Kristian Colaci had a goal as did Moritz Riegel. Colaci also had the Eagles’ lone goal in the 1-1 draw with the Cougars and leads the conference with 12 goals. Biola also leads the league in scoring with 29 total goals.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Nine of the PacWest’s 11 teams have non-losing records in a tight race heading into the final two weeks of the season. Dominican (15 points) at 5-1 and Biola (15 points) at 4-0-3 lead the group, followed by Holy Names (4-3, 12 pts.), Hawai`i Hilo (3-2-2, 11 pts.), Concordia (3-1-1, 10 pts.), Hawai`i Pacific (3-2, 9 pts.), Azusa Pacific (2-2-2, 8 pts.), Point Loma (2-2-1, 7 pts.) and Chaminade (2-2-1, 7 pts.)…UH Hilo goalkeeper Christian Souza had a big week with 16 total saves, including 12 during a 2-0 loss to Biola. The second-year player had four during a 1-0 shutout of Holy Names…Fellow keeper Jeremy Zielinski of Hawai`i Pacific also was impressive during a 3-0 win over Fresno Pacific, getting credit for the shutout with seven saves…Azusa Pacific gave new meaning to “late scores” with TWO goals in the final minute in their 2-0 victory over Chaminade. Gregoire Diep found the net first at 89:36, followed quickly by Jessie Echeverria at 89:51…Holy Names had the highest scoring total on the week during a 5-3 shootout against Academy of Art. Erik Arias had two scores for the Hawks, who moved to 4-3 in conference play with the triumph. Gilly Miller also had two goals for the Urban Knights…The first official Super Region 4 rankings will come out this Wednesday, the same list were the eventual six playoff teams will come from. Last week, a practice list came out in alphabetical order of 12 teams, but no PacWest team made the cut. The Super Region 4 includes teams from the PacWest, GNAC, CCAA, RMAC and Lone Star Conference.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Hawai`i teams are in SoCal this week as we head into the final two weeks of the regular season. Additionally, a big match looms on Wednesday when Holy Names (4-3) visits Dominican (5-1).