Silva hat trick thrills crowd of 13,722

[UC SANTA BARBARA-SAN DIEGO] Senior midfielder Luis Silva scored a hat trick to lead No. 9 UC Santa Barbara past SanDiego, 3-0, before 13,772 fans, the second largest regular-season collegiate crowd ever at an on-campus venue.

The crowd only ranks behind the 15,896 fans that attended last season’s UCSBmatch against UCLA.

Sophomore transfer Dom Sarle set up the two first-half goals.

In the 11th minute, the former U.S. U-17 forwardslid the ball to Silva just as he was running into the box and then the midfielder jumped over a fallen defender before shooting the ball from 16 yards out.

Just over 18 minutes later,Silva initiated the play by passing the ball to Sarle, who sent it back before Silva shot the ball to the same corner from 15 yards out.

In the 59th minute, sophomore David Opoku used a back heel flick to direct the ball to Silva, who was on the left side of San Diego’s goal. For the third time, Silva sent the ball to the farbottom corner to complete his first hat trick.

 “The team played very well tonight,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “It was a great crowd; Ithought our team played off the energy from the crowd. We worked on what we had to do, and for the most part, it was a very good game plan. The players executed it and we got three great goals fromLuis Silva.”