Morton College issued the following announcement on Sept. 29
Juan Franco, the men's soccer coach at Morton College since the program went intercollegiate in 1998, thought he had seen just about everything.
Well, that was up until to Tuesday. Three players – Rafael Silverio, Luis Escalante and Baltazar Duran - each achieved a hat trick in the Panthers' 11-4 Skyway Conference blitzing of Lake County in Cicero.
"I don't ever remember that happening," Franco observed.
Escalante wound up with a three-goal, two-assist match, while Duran added three goals and an assist. Escalante opened the scoring floodgates on Morton College's first offensive opportunity of the match, zipping right through the Lake County defense for a goal two minutes into the contest.
Duran then netted two goals within a 35-second span before Escalante followed with Morton College's fourth goal just 18 seconds after Duran's second tally. The No. 7 Panthers, now 9-2 overall and 4-1 in the Skyway, led 7-zip at halftime in rolling to their fifth straight victory.
The third member of the Panther hat trick trio – Silverio – had a giant match with an 11-point afternoon of four goals and three assists. That moved him into a tie for second nationally with 14 goals. The single match also accounts for one-third of his 33 points, which also puts him second nationally in that category as well. The humble Silverio has scored in Morton College's last five games, all wins.
"I'm just so happy to be here," Silverio said. "I thank the coaches for giving me the opportunity to play here. I'm glad to keep scoring goals if it helps the team win."
Franco was delighted with Morton College's offensive efficiency in the first half. He pointed out of the Panthers' 20 shots, 16 were on goal.
"That's a high percentage of his shots on goal," Franco noted. "I was really impressed with how these three guys touched the ball and got into an offensive rhythm. The whole team was really good with their touches and very crisp in their passing."
Morton College's second-half performance took Franco back to his days playing professional indoor soccer with the Chicago Vultures. Defense took a back seat as both teams pumped in four goals.
"I was happy with how we started, but not happy how we ended," Franco said. "We gave up too many goals in the second half."
Matheus Okuma accounted for Morton College's other goal. Jose Hernandez and Pedro Milani also had assists.
The Panthers are off until Tuesday, October 5th, when they host Waubonsee at 4 p.m.
Original source can be found here.
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