OMAHA, Neb. -- Ethan Finlay netted Creighton's first hat trick since 2004 to lead the fourth-ranked Creighton men's soccer team to a 3-1 win over No. 7 UC Irvine Saturday night in front of 3,761 fans at Morrison Stadium.

Creighton improved to 11-2-0 and remained perfect at home with a 6-0-0 mark.  UC Irvine dropped to 12-3-0 on the fall, but became the first opponent to score in Omaha this season.  The win improved the Bluejays to 17-2-1 against top 25 opponents at home since moving into Morrison Stadium in 2003.

"That's a very, very good opponent, they will do well this year," said head coach Elmar Bolowich who stayed unbeaten at home in his Creighton career. "That's a great win for us. I thought the first half was probably the best half I have seen us play this season."

Each of the MAC Hermann Trophy candidate's first two goals came off a corner kicks, and were nearly identical plays. On both goals, Bruno Castro sent a short corner kick to Jose Gomez who then returned the ball to Castro in the corner.  The sophomore then sent crossing passes to the middle, where Finlay headed them in. The first goal came in the fifth minute on a well struck header, while his second goal in the 62nd minute was a glancing shot from the near post into the far side netting.

Creighton played one of its best halves of soccer in the opening 45 minute, outshooting the Anteaters 7-1, while dominating possession in CU's first home match in three weeks.

Less than a minute after Creighton went ahead 2-0, UC Irvine answered with a score by Jimmy Turner. Turner's header, off of a cross from Christopher Santana, went into the lower left corner and quieted the loud home crowd just 52 seconds after Creighton had taken a two-goal lead.  The goal snapped CU's home shutout streak at more than 530 minutes dating to late last season and ended CU's 2011 home shutout streak at 512:18.

Finlay tacked on the insurance goal in the 88th minute, taking a feed from Jose Ribas and beating keeper Andrew Fontein from the left wing.

Brian Holt made two saves on the night for Creighton, including a save against Norby Rodriguez that kept the Anteaters from scoring the equalizer in the 84th minute. Creighton outshot UCI 18-5 for the night - half of which came from Finlay.  UCI had scored 33 goals in its first 14 matches to rank in the top five offensively in the NCAA, and was averaging better than 17 shots per match before being held to five on Saturday.

Creighton will play inside of Missouri Valley Conference action for the remainder of the season, beginning with a two-game road trip in Illinois next week.  CU plays at Bradley (9-3-2, 1-1-0 MVC) on Wednesday and at SIU Edwardsville (7-4-3, 1-1-1 MVC) next Saturday during Creighton's Fall Break.

NOTES: Finlay's hat trick was the first by a Bluejay since Julian Nash scored three times in a 4-0 win over No. 23 Tulsa on Oct. 3, 2004 ... Finlay had previously scored two goals in a match seven times ... Finlay now has 38 career goals, moving past Brian Mullan (36) into fifth on the CU career scoring chart ... Finlay's 95 career points move him past Richard Mulrooney (89) into sixth in school history.

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