Chico State Men’s Soccer (2-2-1) traveled to San Rafael to give Dominican University (3-1-0) their first loss of the season with a 3-0 victory against the Penguins on Thursday afternoon. 

For nearly 40 minutes, the teams went back and forth, failing to secure a goal against the other team. Finally, in the 39th minute the first goal was scored. After a through ball into the penalty area, sophomore Kristoffer Brown’s shot was deflected by the keeper, but he still managed to score the goal. 

However, Brown didn’t stop there and he went on to score two more goals, netting himself the 26th hat trick in school history and the second of the season. The first one was done by Miles Rice during last Thursday’s win against Saint Martins. 

Chico kept their 1-0 lead for 47 minutes until a clearance by the Wildcats off a Dominican corner was capitalized on by Brown. Freshman Dawson White dribbled into the penalty area and delivered a pass to Brown, who then tapped in the ball for his second goal. 

This season the Wildcat’s defense has been stellar, one of the main components of their wins. The defense has only allowed three goals all season, and have yet to allow more than one in a game.

As for the keeper, Luis Albarran, this was his second clean sheet of the season. 

“Defense has been great, they’ve been making a lot of good plays,” Albarran said. “I definitely feel myself wanting to keep the clean sheet.” 

During the 89th minute sophomore, Justin Ricketts crossed a ball from the right side to Brown, allowing him to finish off a hat trick and seal the victory for the Wildcats. 

The win showed that Chico State was able to bounce back from their tough loss on Sept. 3 against Simon Fraiser.

“We can persevere through any type of conditions,” junior midfielder Adrian Fontanelli said. “We played on turf when it was 100, we are just going to keep building on this chemistry and get better together.” 

The Wildcats will work to carry this momentum from the win into Sunday’s game. 

“We just gotta keep doing what we’re doing,” Fontanelli said. “Be prepared for practice, be mentally prepared and play every game like a playoff game and we’ll be just fine” 

Chico State takes on Holy Names at 2 p.m. Sunday at University Stadium.

Jackson Elrod can be reached at [email protected].