In one of the most impressive showings of the season, the Pfeiffer men’s soccer team (16-4) overpowered Barton (13-6) by a final score of 6-0 on the campus of Limestone Thursday evening in the semifinals of the Conference Carolinas Tournament. Nathan Regis recorded a career-high seven points and his second hat trick of the season to lead the Falcons to their first Conference Tournament Championship game since 2000.
Pfeiffer blew away the Bulldogs thanks to a scoring outburst early in the first half. Four different players recorded a goal in a 9:58 span midway through the first period and the Falcons never looked back.
“We beat a very good team tonight,” said Head Coach Bob Reasso, whose team is shattering the record books. “Every one of our guys played to the best of their ability, it was a great team effort. Now we get to play a very good and very competitive Lees-McRae team. I am very proud of our guys and very much looking forward to Saturday.”
Martim Galvao had a goal and two assists and sophomore goalkeeper Nicolas Dulac set the school record for shutouts in a season as he recorded his ninth of the campaign. Dulac improved to 15-4 on the season as he made eight saves in the contest.
Pfeiffer continues to shatter the previous record of wins in a season, which stood at 13 prior to this season.
Jaime Siaj started the scoring barrage in the 17th minute with Regis getting credit with the assist. Regis controlled the ball on the right wing and chipped a pass into the box that Siaj headed in from 10 yards out. Just over three minutes later, Roberto Soares sent a header into the back of the net for his 10th score of the season. 5:02 later, Galvao set up Regis as another header beat the Barton keeper. Galvao wasted little time putting the Falcons up four as his free kick less than two minutes later capped the scoring streak.
Coming out of the break, Regis scored two goals in less than 10 minutes to record the hat trick and improves his season total to 19 strikes on the season. His seven points tonight pushes his total to 48 on the season, which ties him for the second most all-time. Regis is nine points shy of the all-time record of 57 points set by David Smith in 1965 and is three goals shy of tying Smith’s record of 22 in a single season.
For the match, Pfeiffer held a 21-14 advantage in shots and a 9-4 lead in corner kicks. Regis fired eight shots for the evening and Galvao added four.
The Falcons will advance to the title game and take on the No. 4 seed Lees-McRae Bobcats who upset top seed Limestone in overtime. The last time Pfeiffer advanced to the championship, the Falcons fell 6-5 in penalty kicks to Longwood on Nov. 5, 2000, almost exactly 14 years ago.
Earlier this season, Pfeiffer scored twice in a 4:56 span late in the second half to defeat the Bobcats 3-2 in Banner Elk, N.C. Marshall Hodge netted the equalizer and Mateo Garces-Yepes recorded the winner in the 88th minute.
The title match will take place at 2 p.m. in Gaffney, S.C. Live stats and video will be provided as well as live twitter updates.