Rutland, VT – Nick Escalante (Whittier, CA) found the back of the net three times en route to an eight point day as the SUNY Canton men's soccer team routed host College of St. Joseph's Friday afternoon. The win improves the Kangaroos to 4-5, while the loss drops the Saints to 1-7.

Escalante got the Roos on the board in the 21st minute tallying his sixth goal of the year. Off the ensuing kickoff SUNY Canton drew a foul in the box resulting in a penalty kick. Keelon Joseph (Malabar, Arima, Trinidad & Tobago) stepped up and calmly drilled the shot past St. Joseph keeper Devin Bailey. The Roos held a 19-0 shots and 9-0 shots on goal edge as they took a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard into intermission.

SUNY Canton wasted no time adding its third goal of the game just 1:35 into the second stanza. Abdulai Jagana (Bronx, NY) tallied his third marker of the season off a feed from Escalante. Less than four minutes later Escalante netted his second score of the game to make it 4-0 in favor of the visitors.

Just 16 seconds later the Roos extended their lead to five. Escalante and Jagana went in on the Saint keeper. The speedy California native drew the keeper and played a quick pass to Jagana who placed the ball into the open net for his second goal of the game. Less than a minute later the two players connected again as Jagana fed Escalante who completed the hat trick with his third tally of the game.

The Roos continued to apply pressure and it paid off at the 63-minute mark. Hunter Mowery (Elizabethtown, NY) beat his defender to the end line and crossed the ball back in front of net where he found Prince Adjei (Bronx, NY) who beat Bailey once again. SUNY Canton rounded out the scoring for the game in the 79th minute when Yaw Agyei (Accra, Ghana) assisted a Richie Bempong (Bronx, NY) goal for the 8-0 final.

Evan Drew (Elizabethtown, NY) earned the win playing the first half in goal, while Jamie Stevens (Hudson, NY) played the final 45 in net. Neither keeper was challenged with a shot on goal in the contest. Bailey stopped 11 shots for St. Joseph's.

The men's soccer team continues its Vermont road trip when it takes on Vermont Technical College Saturday at 3:00 p.m.