LACEY, Wash. – Kyle Witzel recorded a haul as the Saint Martin's University men's soccer team defeated Concordia on a Monday rainy afternoon at the SMU Soccer Field. The Saints won 5-2 with Witzel scoring four of the goals.

The junior tied the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and SMU school record with his four goals in the game. He is tied with six other players in the GNAC and tied Xan Nixon's recorded of four goals set in 2008 against Northwest Nazarene.

The last time an SMU player scored a hat trick was back in 2014 when Tody Tolo scored three goals for the win at University of Mary. Tolo is tied with Ruben Orozco, who scored a hat trick against MSU-Billings in 2008.

The Sedro-Woolley native set the school record for goals in a season with 10. The old record of nine goals was set in 2009 by Xan Nixon.

Win-Loss
The Saints move to 3-11-1 overall and 2-7-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, while Concordia falls to 4-9-2 overall and 1-8-1 in the GNAC. This was a make-up game for both teams as it was originally on the schedule of Oct. 15th.

Goal
Witzel scored his first goal of the game at 22:36 with the assists from Kaleb Strawn. Witzel's second goal of the game was at 30:39 as Christian Caro passed the ball to McKray Kohn and he tapped it to Witzel for the goal and SMU went into the half with a 2-0 lead.

After the half, Witzel was awarded a penalty kick after being fouled in the box at 51:23 and he scored his last goal of the game at 58:42 after Mamadou Leigh passed him the ball and he kicked it into the back of the net. With those four goals, Witzel now has 10 goals on the season, which is a new school record.

CU got on the scoreboard at 68:00 after they were awarded Erick Urzua penalty kick and Derrick Gonzales scored the last goal for SMU at 79:48 with the assist going to Alexis Lopez. Urzua scored one more goal for CU at 81:53 but that wasn't enough and the Saints recorded the 5-2 win.

Goalkeeper Stats
Ian Fry was back in the net for SMU and recorded six saves for the game and picked up his first win.

Benoit Bouillant of CU was in the net in the first half and recorded two saves and Grant Alcorn played the second half and had one save.

Team Stats
SMU recorded 15 shots for the game with eight on goal, while Concordia recorded 19 shots for the game with nine on goal.

Witzel recorded seven shots for the game with five on goal and four of those shots on goal were goals.

Coaches Comments
"First off, we felt we left some of our best work undone against a good SPU team on Saturday and wanted to be directed today," said director of soccer Rob Walker. "The five goals scored were a sign of that effort.  Concordia worked hard and despite not having the goals, did create some good chances to keep us off balance throughout the game.  We were really happy with the work of our midfield and forward lines as we are at our best when those groups defend well and keep the ball moving forward.  Kyle Witzel's day is one we haven't seen since Xan Nixon went on a haul in 2008 and that's great for the team and for Kyle who are all in it for each other." 

"We now will have training tomorrow and then we are off to Billings and Nampa to close out our season against a couple of teams who are dynamic and will really challenge us in each third of the field."

What's Next
The Saints will close out the season on the road first on Thursday at Montana State Billings at 2 p.m. local time and face Northwest Nazarene at 3 p.m. local time on Saturday.