SEATTLE, Wash. – Colorado Mesa tallied two second half goals on their way to a 2-1 win over No. 8 St. Edward's in the NCAA South Central Region Championship match at Interbay Stadium. The Mavericks advance to their first-ever NCAA National Quarterfinal round and will be one of eight teams remaining in the hunt for the National Championship.
 
St. Edward's struck first with a goal with just one second remaining in the first half. Hilltopper Andrew Fox took a free kick that caught the Mavericks off guard, and scored from 35 yards out, finding the lower right hand corner of the goal. It was his 16^th goal of the season.

"It was very demoralizing to end the first half like that because it's hard to go into the locker room after that," goalkeeper Micah Conrads said. "There was just some disorganization with how we had our wall set up. They capitalized on our disorganization and sent us into the locker room down one goal."

The Mavericks came out in the second half and would not be denied.
 
Spencer Jackson tallied his first goal of the season after suffering an injury in the fifth game of the season. Jackson took a touch off a rebound and hammered it home from 18 yards out. The goal knotted the match at one a piece.
 
After a Topper hand ball in the box, Roy Abergil took a penalty kick but couldn't convert. Abergil's shot hit the left post.
 
Abergil was able to redeem himself in the 74^th minute. Roy tallied his 12^th goal of the season after taking a pass from Nestor Escobar and found the lower left side of the goal. The goal ties him with Eric Anderson for the single-season record.

"I was actually just trying to get an assist to my friend, Nestor," Abergil joked. "It's one of those moments that you need to try and forget quickly and the coaches kept telling me to forget about it."

The assist was Nestor's eighth of the season and 16^th of his career. He is the all-time leader in both categories.
 
Micah Conrads made a flurry of saves in the final minutes of the match. Conrads made four saves in the final eight minutes and had nine in the match. He faced a total of 18 shots including six off the foot of Topper Daniel Riley.

Colorado Mesa will await the winner of No. 4 Seattle Pacific and No. 14 Cal State Los Angeles. The National Quarterfinal will be played on Saturday at 8:00pm mountain time.

"It's very exciting to be at this level of the tournament and none of us have been here, so it's a brand new experience for all of us. Regardless of the opponent, we are going to come out and play our game," Conrads added.