The Centre men's soccer team found the net early and often in its home opener Friday, defeating Hanover College 8-4 in the 22nd Annual Bob Allen Nissan Classic.

Leading the way for the Colonels was senior forward Austin Hall (Indianapolis, Ind.), who had a hat trick by halftime and finished with four goals. Hall put the Colonels on the board just a minute and 24 seconds into the contest, scoring on an assist from Andy Karel (Prospect, Ky.). A score by Jake Stawick, who scored all four of Hanover's goals briefly knotted the score at one 15 minutes into the game only to have Hall answer immediately with a goal off a George Laventis (Louisville, Ky.) assist that would put Centre in the lead for good.

Hall added another goal on a penalty kick that made the halftime score 4-1, and scored again in the second half on an opportunity that was set up by a long ball from goalkeeper Zach Sosnovich (Woodbridge, N.J.).

Also scoring goals for Centre were Josh Settle (Bowling Green, Ky.) on an early second half penalty kick, Ben Van Nevel (Louisville, Ky.) on a rebound of his own penalty kick, Laventis on an assist from Robbe Tarver (Houston, Tex.) and Andrew Amend on an assist from Cameron Miller.

Stawick scored a pair of back-to-back goals on a penalty kick and an assist from Drew Servais to briefly pull Hanover within striking distance at 5-3 midway through the second half, but Hall, Van Nevel and Amend's goals all came in a three minute span to put the game out of reach.

Sosnovoich finished with two saves on the night, while Hanover keeper John Seewer had seven. Centre outshot Hanover 22-9 for the game.

With the victory, the Colonels improve to 2-1 on the season. Centre is back in action in the second Day of the Bob Allen Nissan Classic at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Baldwin-Wallace, a 5-1 winner over Spalding in Friday's first game. Saturday's first game will be at 5 p.m. between Spalding and Hanover.

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