In a long-anticipated wait, the Lancaster Bible men's soccer team would dazzle in their home-opener here at Donald H. Funk Field with a dominant 5-0 victory over the Wildcats of Penn College. Freshman Andrew Cox wouldn't shy away from the stage either, using the home field advantage and energizing crowd to achieve his first hat trick of his collegiate career. With the win, the Chargers are now 3-1-1 overall and 1-0 in the United East Conference while Penn College moves to 1-4-1 overall and 0-1 in conference.
 
How It Happened: Much like the start of the women's soccer game just before them, the Lancaster Bible men's soccer team would score just a little over a minute in the game as freshman Andrew Cox made a hustle play, blocking a goalie clearance right into the goal. Still pumped from his first collegiate goal, Andrew Cox would score his second goal at the 11:52 mark on a heads-up play from teammate Sam Glock. Just a little under 12 minutes into the game, the Chargers would be up 2-0 and Cox would have both.
 
Just five minutes later, Sam Glock would take a left-footed shot from outside of the box and send it right into the net off an assist from Marcos Nunez. The Chargers wouldn't let up, sending a total of eight shots towards the goal in the first half.

Carrying the momentum into the second half with the crowd buzzing behind them, the Chargers would break the plane once again, but this time transfer Marcos Nunez would make several moves down the middle of the field to score his first goal of the season on an assist from Kedric Yoder.
 
Two minutes later, Andrew Cox would complete the hat trick on a nice volley from teammate Owen Yoder who placed it perfectly in the middle of the box for Cox to tap it over the goalie's head.
 
The Chargers would go on to win their first conference game and home-opener with an entertaining 5-0 victory.
 
From the Coach: "We did exactly what we worked on this week. It was great to see the work pay off and we are excited to continue to improve as the season moves on." – Head Coach Tommy Ardt
 
By the Numbers: Freshman Andrew Cox finished with three goals… Sam Glock had a goal and an assist… Marcos Nunez scored his first goal for the Chargers. The Chargers would finish with 20 shots including 13 shots on goal and a total of 14 corner kicks. Penn College would have eight saves on the day.
 
Information to Know: The hat trick from Andrew Cox this afternoon marks just the 48^th time a Charger has had three goals in a game. The last time a hat trick was completed was in 2021 when teammate Clark Shreiner had three goals versus Berkeley (N.J.) on September 25^th.
 
Up Next: The men will also travel to Penn St. Berks on Wednesday, September 21^st at 7:30 p.m. to compete in their second United East Conference match.