Box Score

CLEVELAND - Caue Da Silva scored his second hat trick in as many games to lead the Delta State Statesmen to a 3-1 victory over Shorter University Friday afternoon. The win puts the Statesmen's (4-1-0, 1-0-0 Gulf South Conference) win streak at four games.

Da Silva became the first Statesmen in history to score two hat tricks in a career and he pulled off the feat in consecutive games for the green-and-white.

"They are team goals," said Da Silva. "The team scores the goals with the way we play. I have been set up with some very great chances and that comes from my teammates."

The freshman scored late in the first half to tie the game up at one goal a piece and give the Statesmen some momentum going into the half. Da Silva scored at the 43rd minute mark on a ball from Daniel Deblaere into the box. Da Silva managed to pull away from his mark and beat Shorter (1-3-1, 0-1-0 GSC) goalkeeper Ryan Edwards on the short side.

"The boys played well today and it was good to face a little adversity early on," said head coach Matt Watts. "It was good to get that goal right before the half as I think it settled the lads down a bit."

Coming out of the half, Delta State increased its tempo and the tactic paid off in the 50th minute. Reese Shaffer played a ball into the middle and Amine Rahmani split the Hawks defense with a pass to set up Da Silva on a breakaway goal.

"Caue made some great goals today, but it was a really good team win," said Watts. " We passed the ball really well and the boys played the attack very well today."

Less than a minute later, Rahmani and Da Silva teamed up again. This time Da Silva fed Rahmani with a ball in the middle on a give-and-go pass. Rahmani then played it back to Da Silva on a run and the São Sebastião do Caí, Brazil native scored to put Delta State up 3-1.

"It feels great to be able to score the goals tonight, said Da Silva. "It's an honor to help this team get the win and I just want to keep pushing forward. We have big goals for ourselves and we want to get better.

Last week, Da Silva became the first freshman in Delta State history to score a hat trick with his three against Mississippi College. The reigning Gulf South Conference player of the week now has seven goals in five games for the Statesmen.

The win against Shorter is the first win for the Statesmen in a conference match since defeating Christian Brothers 1-0 on Sept. 29, 2010. It also brings the Statesmen's win streak two form games, one shy of the team record set back in 2008.

"It is really good to get that first GSC win and it came against a very good squad," said Watts. "The boys earned the victory but we still have work to do. We are playing well but we need to continue to step up defensively. We are still looking for that first clean sheet."

Defensively, freshman goalkeeper Milos Boskovic stopped three of four shots in the game to improve to 4-1 on the season in net. The Statesmen out shot Shorter 21-10 and had 12 corner kicks to the Hawks three.

The Statesmen will look to match the team record 5-game win streak when they host Alabama-Huntsville Sunday at Delta Field. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m.