CAMDEN, N.J. – Brady Seitz's second career hat trick led the Haverford College men's soccer team to a 7-3 win on the road Monday evening against Rutgers-Camden. The Fords' (7-3) seven goals on Monday night were the most by the team under head coach Shane Rineer. The last time that Haverford scored seven goals in a game was over a decade ago when the Fords topped Neumann by a 7-0 score on September 6, 2003 as part of the Jimmy Mills Classic.
Seitz's hat trick was the first for the Fords since the 2012 season when he also scored all three goals for Haverford in a 3-0 win against Ursinus. With Haverford's seven goals and three more goals for the Raptors (7-6), tonight's 10 combined goals were the most in a Haverford men's soccer match since October 22, 1997 when Haverford was an 8-3 winner against Ursinus.
In addition to Seitz's three goals, Tejan Walcott added two goals to the Fords' score sheet, while Maclyn Willigan and Ben Field also tallied in the victory. Will Corkery and Sam Yarosh each recorded two assists on the evening, while Russell Nicholson added a helper to the team's offensive outburst.
Despite the lopsided final score, Haverford found itself trailing on two different occasions. The Raptors opened the scoring just over nine minutes into the contest when Mike Ryan got on the receiving end of a nice pass from the defensive third. He would finish that chance and the early 1-0 lead would stand for over 24 minutes.
However, when Haverford scored it did so in droves. Walcott started the scoring for Haverford with an unassisted tally in the 34th minute of play. He knotted the score up when he sent a loose ball in the box to the right post and in. Just over 43 seconds after surrendering the game-tying goal, Rutgers-Camden got a goal from Connor Huff to make the score 2-1.
Nonetheless, the Fords proved that they could also strike fast. Seitz retied the contest at two-all with his first goal of the night just 1:18 after the Raptors had retaken the lead. Nicholson served the ball into Seitz for his first career assist. It would not be long until the Fords took the lead for good as Seitz headed home a corner piece with just over two minutes left in the half. Set up by Corkery, Seitz finished to the left post, giving his squad a 3-2 lead at the half with his second goal of the evening. The Fords' three goals in the opening half all came within 9:34 span of playing time. Seitz's two goals were just 7:33 apart from each other.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Fords began to pull away with a goal from Field just under five minutes into the second half. Taking a through ball pass from Yarosh, Field scored his third goal of the season to open the second half scoring. He now has goals in back-to-back contests after scoring the game-winning goal against Gettysburg over the weekend.
Haverford added its second goal of the evening off a corner kick in the 66th minute when Willigan got a head on the corner from Corkery. Willigan's goal was his second of the season. Corkery doubled his assist total for the year on the evening as the sophomore now has four helpers on the season. The Raptors attempted to get back in the game with Ryan's second goal of the evening on a loose ball in the box that was finished to make the score 5-3; however, the Fords added two more goals in a 49 second span to erase any thoughts of a comeback from the hosts.
Walcott added his second goal of the evening on a pass from Yarosh in the 82nd minute of play to answer Rutgers-Camden's latest goal. Walcott's goal was the fourth of his season. Yarosh's helpers were his first two of the season. He now has six points (two goals, two assists) in his last five games. Walcott's pair of goals gave him four on the season and nine for his career.
Seitz would finally see his hat trick through just 49 seconds after Walcott tallied his second goal of the evening. Seitz's unassisted tally came in the 83rd minute with 7:33 to play and was the final goal in the offensive outburst. Seitz tied his season-best total of six goals with tonight's hat trick. He also scored six goals during his freshman campaign. The junior now has 15 goals for his career.
The Fords finished the evening with a 24-14 advantage in shots. Six players finished with at least three shots for Haverford, led by four each from Field and Walcott. Seitz scored on each of his three shot attempts on the night. Sam Miller made five saves in his 81:31 of playing time in goal to record the win. Chris Gibson played the final 8:29 of the contest and stopped his only shot he faced on the evening.
Men's soccer will continue its four games in eight days stretch with the third leg on Wednesday. Wednesday's matchup will be against Rowan at 4 p.m. on Walton Field.