ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Matteo Costa was unstoppable Tuesday night.
The senior netted a first-half hat trick to propel the Flagler College men's soccer team to its first victory in a 3-2 win over visiting Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Saints Field.
"Even though in the end we made hard work of it, we are delighted to get our first win of the season," Flagler head coach
Chris Kranjc said. "The addition of Matteo into the lineup added to our attacking threat and to score a hat trick in any game is difficult, never mind achieving it in the first half. We are excited to continue this momentum moving forward and are already looking forward to Saturday's game."
Flagler (1-1) bounced back in a big way thanks to Costa, who played just three minutes in a season-opening 4-1 loss to now fifth-ranked Palm Beach Atlantic University last Thursday. The Italian was back to full strength, and he made it more known each time he found paydirt. His first came in the 15th minute when
Jed Bowman one-touched
Gabriel Delin's cornerkick and found Costa in the box for a bang-bang 1-0 lead.
Fifteen minutes later in the 31st minute,
Marc Birkelund and
Jonas Schmitt teamed up with a pair of quality passes that hit each Saints' foot precisely before finding Costa in the exact same spot for goal No. 2. It took just three minutes to hand Costa his first hat trick in a Flagler kit as
Jared Fuentes won the ball back on the goal line, and then found his red-hot teammate in the box once again.
Costa's trio of goals came in 34 of his 78 minutes played and marks the most he has scored in one game since joining the Saints as a transfer last season. In nine games played in the spring of 2021, he scored six goals and now is halfway to his spring total. The senior had a team-high seven shots (four on goal) with his three scores, while Birkelund and Fuentes had two shots on goal apiece. Those on-target shots paced the Saints' 21 shots (nine on goal) compared to Embry-Riddle's 10 shots (three on goal).
The Saints' first-half onslaught was enough to hold off a late push from the Eagles (1-1) as they saw goals from Sandro Henning and Jake Joyce in the 54th and 73rd minutes, respectively. Flagler goalkeeper
Andrea Lubbia hauled in a second-half save, while Thomas Loesel had six saves for the Eagles.
Up Next: The Saints will hit the road for their first road trip, heading to Florida Tech for a 7 p.m. first touch Saturday.
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