HARDEEVILLE, S.C. – A hat trick from Phillip Holtgen led to a 7-1 win over Ave Maria for SCAD men's soccer on Saturday.
 
RECORDS: The Bees are now 6-4-3, 5-3-2 SUN, while the Gyrenes fall to 1-12-1, 1-9-0 SUN.
 
DID YOU KNOW? This is the first season since 2019 (7-4-2) in which SCAD has won more than five games.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Bees started the scoring early with Philip Holtgen scoring in the eighth minute to go up 1-0. Holtgen, off an assist from Giovanny Lares and Ciao Lara scored his second goal of the game at the 21:59 mark to give SCAD a 2-0 lead.
 
The Bees made it 3-0 when Fabian Ekblom found the back of the net off an assist from Tim Rothe (from the corner kick) with just over 10 minutes remaining in the half. The score remained 3-0 in favor of SCAD at halftime.
 
Just four minutes into the second half, with an assist from Ryan Holmes, Giovanny Lares scored to give the Bees a 4-0 lead.
 
Back-to-back goals from Ryan Holmes (assist: Jake Murphy) and Phillip Holtgen allowed SCAD to go up 6-0 with just under 25 minutes remaining in the game.
 
Five minutes later, Ave Maria scored their only goal to make it a 6-1 game but Ryan Holmes, assisted by Fabian Ekblom, scored the last goal of the game to give the Bees the 7-1 win on School Spirit Day.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Bees outshot the Gyrenes 32 to six, with 14 of those shots going on goal.
 
Phillip Holtgen led the offense for SCAD with three goals for six points while Ryan Holmes totaled two goals and one assist for five points.
 
Fabian Ekblom and Giovanny Lares totaled one goal and one assist, each while Jake Murphy, Caio Lara, and Tim Rothe tallied one assist.
 
Goalie Connor Friel totaled one save in his 90 minutes of work.
 
WHAT'S NEXT? The Bees will hit the road to face No. 3 St. Thomas University on Thursday, October 19 at 6:00 p.m.