Hat Trick propels CNU past Rutgers-Newark

Adam Baker/ The Captain's Log

Senior forward Winston Mattheisen has accomplished a lot during his four-year career at CNU. Since his freshman year in 2008, he has helped the Captains’ to three straight 15+ win seasons, while leading the team in scoring each year. As it stands now, he is the second most prolific scorer in school history with 47 goals, and it is likely that he will move up to number one before his career at CNU is over.

But there is one accomplishment that has constantly eluded Mattheisen: scoring three goals in one game, known as the hat trick.

That changed last Saturday, as the Williamsburg native netted three goals in a 7-0 romp of the Scarlet Raiders from Rutgers-Newark.

Mattheisen got the scoring started a little over five minutes into the first half. He controlled a header from junior defender Brendan Cook and fired the ball into the back left side of the net to give the Captains a 1-0 advantage.

“He’s an All-American!” shouted a fan from the front row of the bleachers. “You can’t touch him!”

But in the 17th minute, the Scarlet Raiders did touch him. Mattheisen broke away from the Rutgers defense and appeared to have his second goal in the bag, but a defender charged up from behind and took Mattheisen out with an illegal slide tackle. Mattheisen was awarded a penalty kick, which he promptly planted in the back right corner of the net to make the score 2-0.

Exactly three minutes later, another illegal slide tackle on senior Brian Lybert gave the Captains a free kick. Lybert hooked the ball just inside the right post for his sixth goal of the season.

With the game well in-hand, Coach Steve Shaw decided to give several reserves some playing time. Junior Andrew Bonorden capitalized on the opportunity by firing a grounder just past the reach of the Rutgers-Newark goaltender to stretch the Captains’ lead to four.

The Captains out-shot the visitors 14-4 in the first half and took a comfortable 4-0 lead into the locker room.

Rutgers-Newark subbed in a new goalkeeper in the second half, but the change made very little difference. With the outcome of the game all but decided, the only question that remained was whether or not Mattheisen would capture the hat trick. He gave the 465 fans in attendance an answer early in the second half by firing a pass from Lybert into the left side of the net.

CNU would tack on two more goals in the second half, one by Lybert, his second of the game, and the other by sophomore midfielder Michael Breske, his first of the season.

It was an uneventful day for senior goalkeeper Justin Wolfe, who was challenged only twice by Rutgers’ attackers. Junior Colin Whittington replaced him late in the second half and made one save in 15 minutes.

CNU, on the other hand, put ball after ball on net. At the end of the day, the shot count read 31-7 in the Captains’ favor.

The Captains improve to 10-0-1 with the victory, and they play again Saturday against Methodist at 7 p.m. on Captains Field.

Posted by Mike Schoeffel on Oct 12 2011. Filed under Soccer, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.