Box Score

Greensboro, NC - UNCG's Cliff Patterson and Michael FitzGerald each recorded hat tricks in the Spartans' 11-2 victory over The Citadel at a rain soaked UNCG Soccer Stadium Tuesday night. UNCG improves to 12-7-0 and 4-3-0 in Southern Conference action with the win, while The Citadel ends their regular season at 4-13-0 and 1-7-0 in league play.

Patterson (Sr./Jacksonville, NC) scored the game's first goal at the 5:45 mark when he dinked the ball in off a pair of beautiful passes from Egill Atlason (Fr./Hafnarfjordur, Iceland) and Jeff Lochrie (Jr./Austin, TX). The Citadel responded though just two minutes later when Dennis Peeters beat UNCG's Jay Benfield (Fr./Lewisville, NC). Christopher Jones and Ben Wilson were each credited with assists.

UNCG then scored seven unanswered goals to take a commanding 8-1 lead. The Citadel broke the Spartans' streak when Peeters' scored his second goal of the evening and third of the season in the game's 75th minute.

In addition to Patterson and FitzGerald's hat tricks, Atlason scored a goal and added a game-high four assists. The four assists in a game ties Atlason nationally with teammate Chris Goos (Sr./Houston, TX) for second most assists in a game this season. Adrian Worthen (So./Morehead City, NC) added his fourth goal of the season and chipped in two assists. Chris Johnson (Fr./Morehead City, NC) picked up his first collegiate goal in the victory.

Goos, the reigning SoCon Player of the Week, also contributed two goals and two assists in the match. With the six points, Goos moves past former Spartan legend Eddie Radwanski into fourth place in single season points at UNCG with 58.

The 11 goals for the Spartans were the most scored in a match since a 12-2 victory over The Citadel in the 1997 season.

UNCG will play its final regular season match of the season on Saturday, November 9, at home against VMI. Kickoff is slated for 7 pm at the UNCG Soccer Stadium.