DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Webber International senior Bjorn Asbjornsson recorded his first hat trick of the 2006 season to lead the Warrior men's soccer team to a 3-2 conference victory over Embry-Riddle on Saturday. The Warriors improved to 4-1 overall (2-1 in the Florida Sun Conference), while the Eagles fall to 5-2 overall and 1-2 in league play.
"I'm extremely disappointed with the performance," Coach Gregson said at the conclusion of the match. "Webber thoroughly deserved to beat us. But the whole of next week to start working on the things that got us to the top in the first place and I'm looking forward to getting back on the training pitch to correct a few things next week."
The first three goals of the match came in a flurry in a five-minute span. After dominating the possession for the majority of the first half, the Eagles struck the first blow in the 28 th minute. Daniel Whelan took the ball through the heart of the Warrior defense and found Phil Middleton running down the left side. Middleton dribbled into the box where he was brought down by a WIU defender. Yoffe took the resulting penalty kick and gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead with his 12 th goal of the season.
Yoffe and the Eagles struck again less than two minutes later when Carl Sheard played a ball into the box. Yoffe collected the ball on the right side and rifled a shot past Warrior keeper Tony Restino into the far side netting to increase the Eagle margin to 2-0.
At the 32:09 mark, Alex Sesto drew three Eagle defenders and then found Asbjornsson who slotted the ball past Ian Levine to pull the Warriors within one.
WIU stepped up its offensive intensity in the second half and it paid off as Asbjornsson netted the equalizer on a penalty kick with 31 minutes left in the match.
In the 65 th minute, Hugh Davey received a red card, forcing the Eagles to play the remainder of the match with only 10 players. WIU capitalized on the one-man advantage, and with 11:35 remaining, Asbjornsson completed his hat trick, finishing a ball that took a fortuitous bounce for the game-winner.
The Eagles take a break from conference play to host Flagler at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30.
