Logan Dorsey’s hat trick propels Kentucky men’s soccer (4-5-5, 3-2-2 Sun Belt) past Coastal Carolina (3-9-2, 1-4-2 Sun Belt) by a score of 5-0.
“We got the job done early on today, which I think is needed and to get a couple goals early and kind of put out the game was great. First goal, Berthold drawing the penalty, getting in the box, being dangerous and getting a foul out of it is important,” Dorsey said. “Second one, everybody’s just around the box. We’re making things happen. Marty fires off a shot, and I’m fortunate to take a good touch and put it away. Then the third one, Nick, I can’t praise his performance tonight enough. He was fantastic in every category of the game, and at the end, to be able to just square to me to make an easy finish was fantastic.”
The match got off to a quick start as 90 seconds in, Joel Gonzalez was given a yellow card.
Just five minutes into the first half, Dorsey scored a penalty kick to give the Cats a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard. Dorsey wasted no time finding the back of the net yet again as he scored his second goal of the game only 10 minutes later to extend the Cats’ lead to 2-0 with an assist from senior Martin Soereide.
Kentucky continued the great start on offense in the 17th minute when freshman Oliver Stavdal scored his second goal of the season on an assist from sophomore Marqes Muir to extend the lead to 3-0.
The early 3-0 lead stuck until halftime and when play resumed, the Wildcats continued putting pressure on Chanticleer defenders. The uptick in intensity resulted in three yellow cards being handed out to Coastal Carolina.
Dorsey secured the hat trick in the 63rd minute with assists from freshman Eric Onos and fifth year Nick Zielonka that extended the lead to 4-0. He recorded the first hat trick since 2022 when Ben Damge scored three goals against Georgia Southern.
“I’m happy for Logan, super guy, leadership council senior, who came here because he wanted to play at a different level than he played before,” Kentucky Head Coach Johan Cedergren said. “He has worked so hard, for a guy who broke his foot in February, had to work pretty hard to get back in and be fit for preseason, guys love having him around. He’s one of the hardest working guys in the practice field, in the game field, so proud of him and happy that he got a hat trick,”
A couple minutes later, Soereide scored to put the Cats up 5-0, with assists by Zielonka and freshman Victor Hansen.
The Wildcats 5-0 held until regulation ran out and the victory was secured, which broke a streak of three straight winless matches.
“I told the guys after the game that it felt like it’s been years since we won last which it has not, of course, but it was nice. I thought what the guys did really well tonight was they executed the game plan, which led us to be up three goals after 20 minutes,” Cedergren said. “I think after that, it was just about managing minutes and trying to keep playing and all that kind of stuff but I’m really proud of the guys, because I think that the way that we wanted to play today and the way we wanted to approach how Coastal plays was exactly how we played in the first 30 minutes.”
The Wildcats next match is back home to The Bell Soccer Complex for senior night against No. 4 Marshall on Friday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. EST.
