Men's Soccer

Vanguard Leaps into First Place

The Lions topped Point Loma 3-0 to move to the top of the tight conference race. Caleb Johnson's GK work played a big role. HPU's Ridelius scored twice as the Sharks stayed in tournament contention.

Vanguard moved to the top of the heap with a huge 3-0 win over Point Loma for Team of the Week honors. Hawaii Pacific stayed alive in the playoff hunt with an equally big 6-1 win over Dominican, with Ollie Ridelius dropping home two of those goals. On defense, VU’s Caleb Johnson had five saves in the shutout of the Sea Lions.

2026 Results/Schedule
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2026 National Poll
 
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Vanguard Lions                                                                                                                                                                      
Vanguard is the Team of the Week after a defining 3-0 victory over Point Loma. The Lions moved to the top of the PacWest standings (16 points), one digit ahead of the Sea Lions (15). Caleb Johnson led the Lions defense on a busy afternoon (see below) while VU got goals from three different players—Zander Zill, Luke Parker and Robert Romo. The Lions only had three shots on goal in the match, but made them all count in the victory. Vanguard has won three of their last four matches to improve to 5-2-1.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Hawaii Pacific’s Ollie Ridelius, MF, Sr., 6-0, Stockholm, Sweden                                                                      
Hawaii Pacific’s Ollie Ridelius scored twice in HPU’s huge win over Dominican, 6-1. The goals and Sharks victory moved them into a tie with the Penguins for third place in the conference standings at 4-2-1 (13 points), one spot ahead of Concordia (12). The senior from Sweden scored the first and last goals of the day for the Sharks, dropping home the first score just 31 seconds into the match. He scored the final tally of the day in the 76th minute. It’s the second two-goal match of the season for Ridelius.
 
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Vanguard’s Caleb Johnson, GK, Fr., 6-2, Kingsburg, Calif.                                               
Vanguard’s Caleb Johnson is the Defender of the Week for the second time in three weeks after a huge effort during a 3-0 win over Point Loma. The freshman had five saves in the big win and faced 14 shots against the aggressive Sea Lion attack. It marked just the second time this season that Point Loma has been shutout this year, and the first time in 11 matches. For Johnson, it was his second shutout of the season and his second highest save total.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Heading into the final week of the regular season, seven teams are still alive for the four PacWest tournament spots. Each team has one or two matches left (to get to a total of nine conference matches). 1) Vanguard 5-2-1 (16 points), 2) Point Loma 5-3 (15 points), 3) Westmont 4-1-2 (14 points), T4) Dominican 4-2-1 (13 points), T4) Hawaii Pacific 4-2-1 (13 points), Concordia 4-3 (12 points) and Biola 3-3-1 (10 points)…Concordia followed up Vanguard’s victory over Point Loma on Wednesday with one of their own on Saturday, 2-1. Goalkeeper Leo Ripert gave up just one goal and had five saves in just his fourth career start…Westmont kept pace with a big 2-0 win over Biola, led by a goal and assist from Leonel Olivio Ortiz. The Warriors also had a non-conference win over UC Santa Cruz with two goals from Logan Race…Hawaii Hilo won their only match of the week with three second half goals during a 3-2 win over Jessup. Gudmundur Ingason had two of the scores including the game winner with just 30 seconds left.

WEST REGION RPI: No PacWest team cracked the top 10 in the third NCAA Super Region 4 rankings with Point Loma dropping to No. 20. To see the list, click here.

LOOKING AHEAD: It’s Finals Week as the countdown to PacWest tournament qualification reaches it’s final six days. On Monday, Jessup visits Hawaii Pacific and Dominican is at Hawaii Hilo. Wednesday shows Biola at Vanguard and Concordia at Westmont, and the 2026 regular season wraps up on Saturday with HPU at Chaminade, Point Loma at Westmont, Jessup at Dominican and Biola at Concordia.