Westmont Men's Soccer (2-1) scored four goals in a span of less than six and one-half minutes – including a hat trick by senior Daniel Johnsen – as the Warriors defeated Embry-Riddle of Arizona (2-1-1) by a score of 7-0. It marks only the ninth time in team history that a player has scored three or more goals in a game.

"DJ led so well today – verbally and in his approach to the game," noted Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. "When he got chances, he was clinical in front of goal. None of his goals were easy finishes. He was in a great frame of mind and played beautifully. It was a captain's performance from him. He gets the man of the match.

The Warriors shot the ball 29 times – the most in ten years – placing 19 of those shots on goal. Embry-Riddle was limited to eight shots, three of which were on goal.

"It was a very interesting game in that the conditions were very difficult and you weren't sure how the teams were going to approach the game," said Wolf of playing on artificial turf in triple-digit temperatures. "(Embry-Riddle) dropped back defensively in the first half and let us have the ball in our half of the field. The only thing we could really do was play balls over the top. There wasn't much room to play in the midfield."

In the 31st minute, Westmont's Jonny Yeeles provided what turned out to be the game winner and the only goal of the first half.

"We had one really good moment of quality (in the first half)," said the coach. "It started with a corner that they initially cleared. We had a couple of guys playing a neat combination on the edge of the box. DJ (Daniel Johnsen) cut the ball across the top of the box. Jonny collected it on the left side of the box, beat a guy and slashed the ball with his left foot in the upper left-hand corner, beating the keeper to the near side.

"That was probably the key moment in the game because then they had to come out and play a little bit. At the start of the second half, they pressed up higher. We passed the ball just beautifully and basically played through them time, after time, after time."

In the 52nd minute, Johnsen scored an unassisted goal to put the Warriors up 2-0. Six minutes later, the Warriors held a 5-0 lead with two more goals from Johnsen and one from Wilton Quintero.

"When we started running wild, they got discouraged," said Wolf. "While they were getting discouraged, we were getting energized, even the guys that hadn't yet played any college soccer wanted to get in on the act. The needle just swung completely to us."

Before the game came to an end, the Warriors tacked on two more goals. Cody Howen scored in the 77th minute to make it a 6-0 game. Austin Lack scored for the second day in a row; completing the scoring in the 85th minute.

As important to Wolf as the first digit in the lopsided score was the round number that followed.

"I am really happy that we pitched a couple of shutouts (this weekend)," said the veteran coach. "We hadn't done that yet this year. To get a couple of shutouts in a tough environment against two pretty good teams will probably be the most pleasing thing once all the dust settles."

Westmont returns to action next Saturday when they host the Coyotes of Kansas Wesleyan in a four o'clock game at Thorrington Field.