BEREA, Ohio – Nati Wallis scored his first collegiate hat trick for the Wilmington College men's soccer team in a 4-1 rout of Baldwin Wallace University (BW) in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) action on Saturday evening.
It was Niklas Martensson that opened the scoring for the Fightin' Quakers. The senior, who missed the victory over Otterbein University due to cautions, netted his 15th goal of the season unassisted in the 18th minute. Just over four minutes later, however, BW answered as Joey Geither scored off a pass from Logan Davis.
Wallis, who hadn't scored a goal this season coming into the game, netted his second collegiate goal off a pass from Martensson at the 33:52 mark of the first half. Leading 2-1 less than two minutes before the first half, Wallis struck again unassisted to give the visitors a 3-1 lead at the break.
BW would outshot Wilmington 11-3 in the second half, but Wallis scored the only goal of the second half in the 65th minute.
"I'm really proud of the exceptional energy we brought tonight," Head Men's Soccer Coach Alex Van der Sluijs said. "We were clinical in the final third of the game and consistently put Baldwin Wallace under pressure.
BW's top scorer, Danny Ruple, fired five shots including two on net while Kurt Rainey took eight shots for the Yellow Jackets. Wilmington's goalkeeper, Felix Maurer, saved all four of those shots along with four others to earn the victory.
Wilmington improves to 9-6-0 overall and 4-3-0 in the OAC with the win. BW drops to 7-8-1 and 2-4-1 in the OAC with the loss.
The Quakers host Capital University for senior day on Wednesday, Oct. 24.