Harry Machacha (Germiston, South Africa) put together a scoring showcase to book a hat-trick against Ohio Valley in a 6-0 win to close regular season play for the University of Charleston men's soccer team, Thursday afternoon.
Machacha struck twice in a five minute span in the 16th and 21st minutes to give the home team a cushion it would sit on for the remainder of the wet contest. Machacha benefited from two precision passes from Rob Vincent (Liverpool, England) and Ryan Osborne (Wakefield, England) to find himself wide open with a one-on-one matchup with the Fighting Scot goalkeeper. The second goal came on a long ball from Craig Cantor (Cincinnati, OH) allowing Machacha to run behind the OVU defense with another chance alone with the keeper.
The third goal of the contest came from the continuous threat in the middle of All-Americans Dion Peters (Trincity, Trinidad) and Vincent. Vincent slipped the ball thru the Ohio Valley defense to a streaking Peters who nailed a one-timer to the back on the net for his team-leading 11th goal of the season.
Machacha wrapped up his day just minutes before the halftime break with a run down the left side on a pass from Dan Walmsley (Manchester, England). He made one defender miss running up the endline for his third solo attempt against the goalie, which he again won with a perfectly placed ball against the far right side of the net for a 4-0 advantage.
Freshman Ben Stafford (Daniels, WV) got into the scoring act off a great pass from Garrett Listo (Cincinnati, OH) as the Charleston bench played much of the second half. Stafford struck for his first career goal in the 82nd minute. Listo closed out the day's scoring with an unassisted goal of his own on a breakaway toward the net in the 84th minute.
The win wraps up regular season play for the Golden Eagles as they secure their third-straight WVIAC Championship for a first round tournament bye. Charleston will get their first taste of postseason action on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7:00 pm with the tournament to be held at Schoenbaum Stadium.