By: A Joe Tooley hat trick highlighted a dominating performance for the Blueboys on Monday afternoon.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's soccer team defeated MacMurray College for a sixth straight time on Monday afternoon to retain the Mayor's Cup in the clash of the two cross-town rivals. Senior
Joe Tooley had a hat trick for the Blueboys in a 6-1 victory over the Highlanders. IC improves to 6-2-0 with Midwest Conference play beginning tomorrow night.
It didn't take long for Illinois College to get on the board, but the Blueboys were somewhat content with the lead and didn't seal the match until the second half.
Austin Cearlock got IC going with a ball played over the top to a surging
Mesfin Lenth to put away in the sixth minute for a 1-0 lead. In the 13th minute it was Tooley carving open the MacMurray defense with a through ball to
Justin Hill that netted the freshman his first career goal. The Blueboys weren't heavily pressured by the Highlanders throughout the half, but also could not add on any further to the lead and went to the break with a 2-0 lead.
Tooley scored twice in quick succession in the opening minutes of the second half to end any doubt of what the result would be. Lenth flew down the right wing and fed across to Tooley for the first goal of the second half and Lenth then had the pass that played Tooley forward less than three minutes later. Once in the penalty area, Tooley had work to do but he danced through the MacMurray defense and netted from almost the same location to make it 4-0.
A freshman-to-freshman connection made it 5-0 in the 77th minute as
Almiyahou Ngala took a pass from
Kwabena Akosah and finished deftly past the back-up MacMurray goalkeeper. Back in the match to try to complete the hat trick, Tooley and
Alan Shawgo found space through the Highlander defense and the ball eventually came to Tooley to score his third of the match. MacMurray would get a consolation goal less than a minute later, but only three minutes remained and the Blueboys weren't troubled again.
Illinois College ended the match with a 26-3 edge in shots and a 9-0 lead in corner kicks. Tooley ended with nine shots, five of which were on goal.
Frankie Copado and
Roger Mies each ended with three shots.
The Blueboys will be back home at England Stadium tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. to meet Knox College in the MWC opener for each team.
