ELMIRA, NY (October 28, 2019) --- Sophomore Alex Showalter doubled his career goal total with a hat trick to lead the King's College men's soccer team to a convincing 4-0 win over the host Elmira College Soaring Eagles on Monday afternoon from Elmira, NY.

Showalter scored in the 21st, the 61st, and the 81st minutes as King's improved to 13-4-1 in their final non-conference match of the season. Elmira dropped to 9-5-3 with the loss on their home grass field.

King's came out strong as they looked to score in the opening minutes for the fourth straight match. Alastair Dinnan nearly gave them the lead in the third minute with a shot after a long throw in from the right side. His header in the box just missed the cross bar and came down on top of the net for a goal kick. A minute later Nik Verma had his blast from the top of the box blocked by an Eagle defender. The Monarchs kept the pressure of as Kyle Shalvey forced Xavier Townsend to make his first save of the day as he knocked away a shot from the top of the box that was headed for inside the right post. KC collected the rebound and sent a cross back into the box for August Axtman who had his header saved by Townsend.

The Monarchs responded to Elmira earning the first corner kick of the day in the 16th minute with a trio of shot that were off the mark. Dinnan missed wide, Shalvey's attempt was blocked, and then Dylan Ramage went wide right in a span of 43 seconds. Showalter put the Monarchs on the board in the 21st minute when he knocked in a loose ball off the foot of Shalvey in the box right in front of the goal. Five minutes later King's increased the lead to 2-0 when Matthew Hesse sent a hard cross into the box from the right side towards Justin Decoteau. The cross went off a EC defender and into the back of the net for an own goal.

KC came out of the break at halftime looking to increase their lead immediately. Despite the Soaring Eagles starting with the ball, the Monarchs forced a turnover and Aziz Atiyeh put a shot on goal 25 seconds into the half. Giovanni Garufi, who replaced Townsend in net at the half, managed to keep the shot out of the goal. Sam Pipicelli missed high on a header and then Hesse missed two shots wide in the first five minutes. Garufi made a save on a Hesse shot in the 59th minute before an Atiyeh shot was blocked late in the 60th minute that set up a Monarch corner kick. Quentin Szeker-Cortes found Showalter in the box on the corner as the sophomore headed in his second goal of the match.

A few minutes later King's nearly scored on another corner kick by Szeker-Cortes as the sophomore connected with August Axtman in the box. The header by Axtman just sailed high of the goal keeping the KC advantage at three. Showalter would complete the hat trick with his third goal and KC's final tally of the day early in the 81st minute when he knocked in a rebound off a shot from Ayrton Omoigui that was saved by Garufi.

Showalter tallied his three goals on just three shots while Shalvey, Szeker-Cortes, and Omoigui had an assist each. The assist for Shalvey was his third of the season while Szeker-Cortes recorded his third assist of the year and eighth of his career. Omoigui recorded his first career assist. Pat Hughes got the win in net to improve to 4-0-0 on the year making two saves in 81:51 minutes of action. Hughes made a nice side in the 40th minute as Mark Brado Jr. got behind the Monarch defense on a free kick from the right side. Hughes was able to knock away Brado's shot from inside the box on the left flank away from the goal and towards a Monarch defender who cleared the ball away from danger. Hughes was replaced in goal by Joey Lindsay who didn't face a shot in the final eight minutes.

The Monarchs finished with an 22-5 shot advantage while putting 11 of their shots on goal. The Soaring Eagle keepers combined for seven saves while King's also held a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. KC recorded their seventh clean sheet of the season.

King's will now turn their attention back to conference play and the final regular season match of the year on Saturday. The Monarchs will travel to Madison, NJ to take on the Devils of FDU-Florham for a 2 pm kickoff from Robert T. Shields Field. A victory will clinch a spot in next week's MAC Freedom Championships while a loss could be the end of their season depending on the result of the Misericordia and DeSales match that is also being played on Saturday.