Shreveport – The Centenary men's soccer team doubled up the Louisiana College Wildcats, 6-3, on Monday evening in a non-conference match at Mayo Field.
The Gents (7-5) won for the seventh time in eight home matches this season and have now outscored the opposition by a 21-6 margin in those eight matches. Louisiana College (1-13) a member of the American Southwest Conference, has now lost five straight matches after Monday's loss.
Sophomore Wil Escobar, a midfielder from Cypress, Texas, tied a program record for goals in a single game with three as he recorded a hat trick on Monday. Escobar, who leads Centenary in goals with nine, scored all three of his goals in the second half. He has four game-winning goals this season to lead the team and scored at least two goals in a match for the third time this season.
Escobar scored all four goals for the Gents in a pair of victories at home to open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play earlier this month against Johnson and Wales and Colorado College, recording two goals in each match.
Escobar, a SCAC Men's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week honoree earlier this month following that four-goal weekend, currently ranks in the top five in the SCAC in goals, points, goals per game, points per game and game-winning goals.
Freshman midfielder Andres Bautista (Houston, Texas) scored on a penalty kick in the 21st minute to put Centenary up 1-0 but then Louisiana College's Evan Norwood tied the match at 1-1 and that score stood until halftime. The teams then entered into a frenetic offensive showdown in the final 45 minutes.
Jason Rodriguez gave the Wildcats a 2-1 lead in the 65th minute off an assist from Travion Prevost. Just thirteen seconds later Bautista struck again to tie the game and amazingly 10 seconds after that, Escobar scored his first goal to give the Gents a 3-2 lead.
Bautista fed Escobar the ball at the 81:18 mark for a 4-2 lead but just over a minute later Seth Collins scored an unassisted goal to cut the Centenary lead to 4-3. Three minutes later freshman Quentin Helm (Denton, Texas) received a pass from David Barbera (Gonzales, La.) and the rookie speedster made a beautiful inside move with the ball past the defender and found the back of the net for his first-career goal much to the crowd's delight. Escobar then added the exclamation point with his third score in the final minute off the assist from freshman Barbera.
The Gents took 30 shots Monday to 18 for the Wildcats. Sophomore goalkeeper Patrick Riley (Baton Rouge, La.) started in place of usual starter Sami Borchalli (Lafayette, La.) and made five saves and allowed just one goal in the final 35 minutes.
The Gents return to SCAC play this weekend as they hit the road and face Dallas on Friday at 7 p.m. and Austin College on Sunday at 2 p.m. #GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
