St. Mary's City, Md. – A pair of hat tricks from juniors Nick Tait (Silver Spring, Md./Sandy Spring Friends) and Zach Fontenot (Middletown, Md./Middletown) lifts the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's soccer team to a Capital Athletic Conference-opening 7-0 victory over Southern Virginia University on a cloudy, windy Saturday afternoon.

The Seahawks (4-3-1, 1-0-0 CAC) extended their unbeaten streak to four games with today's commanding victory, keeping Southern Virginia (1-8-0, 0-1-0 CAC) winless against St. Mary's in three meetings now.

Tait scored the first two goals of the contest at 6:43 and 10:05 while forwards Alessandro Burlew (Mount Airy, Md./Good Counsel) and Luke Barber (Washington, D.C/Walt Whitman) assisted on the tallies, respectively. Sophomore midfielder Sunny Chhatani (Lima, Peru/Indian Creek [Md.]) followed just under three minutes later with an unassisted goal off a free kick at 12:45.

St. Mary's then notched two scores in 21 seconds as Tait struck again with a jumping header at 22:30 before Fontenot picked up his first of the match off a feed from junior captain Yonah Zeitz (Potomac, Md./Edmund Burke). Fontenot's second goal of the day came at 32:15 to send the Seahawks into halftime with a 6-0 advantage.

Southern Virginia ramped up its offense in the second half, firing off eight shots compared to just one during the first 45 minutes. However, sophomore goalkeeper Ben Meyers (Kensington, Md./Walter Johnson) was up to the charge and turned away three shots to preserve the clean sheet.

Fontenot tallied the final goal of the game at 46:19 as he collected a pass from junior midfielder Kyle Reichard (Crofton, Md./South River) and bent his shot just inside the far post for his fourth of the season.

The Seahawks owned a 17-9 shot advantage as well as a 5-2 corner kick margin. Sophomore goalkeeper Zack Haussler (Woodbine, Md./Glenelg) and Meyers combined for the team's second shutout of the season. Haussler played in the first half and made one save while Meyers finished with three stops over the final 45 minutes.

Junior Keenan Carroll (Green River, Wyo./Laramie County CC) registered two saves in 58:49 while first-year Kostner Olson (Highland, Utah/Lone Peak) recorded three in 31:11 as the Knights dropped their third straight.

The Seahawks will be on the road for their next match, traveling to Ashland, Virginia on Tuesday, September 29 to face Randolph-Macon College in non-conference action at 4:30 p.m.

Facebook: StMarysAthletics

Twitter: @smcseahawks, #SMCMmsoc, #HawksFlyTogether

Instagram: @smcseahawks