Cougar soccer parlays historic hat tricks to 4-0 road victory

Two historic hat trick performances powered the Barton Community College men's soccer team to a road victory Saturday in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, as the Cougars won 4-0 over the junior varsity squad of Oklahoma Wesleyan University.  The 3-0 Cougars will conclude their Oklahoma swing on Sunday traveling to Bethany for a 2:00 p.m. kick against the Southwestern Christian University JV.

Barton freshman Lucas Alves scored two of his three goals in the first half leading the Cougars to a two goal halftime edge.  Getting the first just six minutes into the contest from Renan Sousa, Alves picked up his second goal midway through the half unassisted by beating the goalkeeper with a chip shot.

It didn't take the Cougars long to put the game out of reach adding two more goals in the first four minutes of the second frame.  1st team all-conference and all-region selection Jiro Barriga Toyama picked up his first goal of the season getting Sousa's second assist just two minutes out of the locker room.  Two minutes later, Sousa found Alves for the final goal as both players achieved the rare status of dual hat tricks.

The dual hat trick performances of Alves and Sousa marks the fourth time in the storied history of Cougar soccer for the occasion.  Two of the occurrences came in the 2009 season involving two players at the top of the Barton record books.   Leandro Rios, the Cougars' all-time assist leader with 26 assists, distributed three of those assists in each of the 2009 achievements.  Rios' first hat trick came September 15, 2009, against Independence Community College setting up two of Harry Newman's three goals in the 16-0 victory.   Thirteen days later and the last time the dual hat trick event occurred, Rios set up three of Kevin Ellis' four goals leading Barton to a 5-0 victory over Neosho County Community College.  Ellis, the Cougars' career leader with 34 goals, is also the lone Cougar alum to reach the professional level and is currently in his fifth season with Sporting KC of the MLS.  

The first time the dual hat trick was achieved was back in 2005 as Great Bend freshman Carlos Nieto dished out three assists and Bruno Conceicao scored three goals in the Cougars' 9-0 win August 28 over Western Nebraska Community College.