ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis' Kyle Patterson notched a hat trick in the final 10 minutes of play to power the 15th-ranked Saint Louis Billikens to a 3-0 victory against Xavier in Atlantic 10 Conference men's soccer action at Robert R. Hermann Stadium Friday night.
Patterson's goals, which bring his season total to a team-leading nine, helped salvage the victory after the two teams played 80 minutes of scoreless soccer.
"I'm pleased to walk out of here with a win tonight, but there are still some things we need to correct on the offensive end," Donigan said. "As we continue conference play, we are going to have more games like this and we need to clean up shop so as to not put ourselves in this situation again. Fortunately, we were just good enough to come away with a win."
It was the second natural hat trick of Patterson's career. The other came last season when he netted three straight goals in a span of 2 minutes, 31 seconds against Saint Joseph's, the second fastest in NCAA history.
Patterson got the Billikens on the scoreboard at the 80:55 mark to end the stalemate. Calum Angus had the ball on the endline, and served it in to a charging Patterson. Xavier keeper Adam Sokolowski and Patterson both got to the ball at the same time, but Patterson managed to poke it over the goal line for a 1-0 SLU lead.
In the 88th minute, Patterson scored again to make it 2-0 SLU. Tim Ream served a ball into the box that Jimmy Holmes was unable to get a foot on. However, Patterson was at the right place at the right time and buried the ball into the back of the net.
Just 1:34 later, Patterson rifled a 28-yard bomb into the upper netting off a re-start initiated by Rob Viviano to complete the late flurry that excited the 1,204 fans at Hermann Stadium.
The offensive outburst came after a scoreless first half. In the second session, Donigan tweaked the lineup and put Angus in an attacking midfielder role. That increased SLU's offensive output, and Patterson benefited from the build-up out of the midfield.
SLU keeper Pat Disbennett only had to make three saves, but two of them were dazzling. In the first half, Xavier's C.H. Farmer had an open look from inside the box, but Disbennett got in good position to control the low shot. In the second half, he made the save of the night when he got his right glove on a missile off the foot of Jake Vollmer. It was Disbennett's league-leading sixth shutout of the season.
SLU returns to action Sunday when it hosts Dayton at Hermann Stadium for a 1 p.m. kick. SLU's 1973 national championship team will be recognized at halftime, where they will receive their national championship rings.
