(Posted October 17, 2004)

Juniata 5, Pitt-Bradford 0

Bradford, Pa. ? Chad Weller (Newport/Newport) recorded his first career hat trick as the Juniata College men?s soccer team posted a 5-0 victory over the University of Pitt-Bradford in Bradford Sunday afternoon.

The win was the second win in as many days for the Eagles who improved to 5-9-1 with the triumph. Pitt-Bradford dropped to 1-13 with the loss.

Kyle Dunn (Central Bucks East/Warrington) opened the scoring for Juniata as his direct kick found the back of the net at the 25:51 mark in the first half.

Weller then scored the first of his three tallies off an assist from Rick McLellan (Moon/Lake Forest, Ca.) just three minutes later. Jeff Gehring (Exeter Township/Reading) capped Juniata?s first-half scoring at 32:35 with a long blast from 30-yards out that beat Bradford keeper Jason Luton. Luton made several tough saves in the first 45 minutes to keep the home team within striking distance. He finished the half with six saves.

The second half belonged to Weller as he scored his second goal at 56:31 off an assist from Kenny Wiles (Rhinebeck/Rhinebeck, N.Y.) to make the score 4-0. His final goal again came off a pass from McLellan and was just 70 seconds after his previous goal. This time he beat reserve keeper Michael Ruffino to cap the scoring. Ruffino made two saves in the second half.

Juniata also split time in goal with Mark Guthridge (DuBois/DuBois) playing the first half, and Nathan Pugh (Shippensburg/Shippensburg) spending the second half in the net. Guthridge made one save, and Pugh stopped three shots to preserve the shutout.

After earning their first conference victory on Saturday, the Eagles will be back in action next Saturday playing conference foe Lebanon Valley on the road.

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.