Pourshahidi Hat Trick Gets 4-2 Victory

Saturday, September 21

Irvine, Calif.

6:00 PM

UC Irvine

2-4-1, 0-0-0

Utah Tech

1-5-2, 0-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Utah Tech	0	2	2
UC Irvine	2	2	4

agaton-pourshahidi-uci-msoc-2024-lmu-utahtech

Photo by: Jacob Thompson

Pourshahidi Hat Trick Gets 4-2 Victory

September 21, 2024 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine men's soccer first hat trick since 2010 highlighted the 4-2 victory Saturday night in Anteater Stadium vs. Utah Tech

Agaton Pourshahidi scored a brace in the first half putting the 'Eaters up 2-0 at the break, and added the third goal late in the match to put the 'Eaters back at arm's reach, 4-2
- The first goal of the match came in the 16th minute as Pourshahidi drew a foul in the box and then finished his chance from the spot to make it 1-0
- In the 32nd minute, the 'Eaters were in the attack and Francesco Montanile's cross through the goalmouth was slowed and landed to Pourshahidi for the easy finish and a 2-0 lead
- In a one-goal game late, the 'Eaters were back on the attack looking to get back on the scoresheet, and another drive off the right wing this time fell to Pourshahidi in the middle of the box with enough time to gather and punch home his third of the match and make it 4-2 in the 80th minute
- Pourshahidi's hat trick is the first for the program since 2010 when Spencer Thompson did so. Pourshahidi now has a hat trick to go with two braces in his career
UC Irvine grew its lead to 3-0 in the 62nd minute with a crossed rolled from the touchline that Isaac Powell pounced on in the box and hit the crossbar before it landed across the line
Utah Tech made it a game with two goals in the second half
- A penalty in their favor was put home by Oliver Stone to make it a 3-1 match in the 70th minute
- The Trailblazers got another back in the 79th minute as a corner was cleared and played down to the goalline before it was lofted back in and headed across by Angel Saldana to climb to within 3-2
UCI's offense was on the move with 27 shots to nine for Utah Tech firing 14 on frame
- Alex Shields made two stops while his counterpart Stockton Short made nine including one team save
- UCI committed 18 fouls of the 24 total along with four of the six cautions issued
Francesco Montanile and Samuel Atiye each set up two goals in the match. Atiye earned his first two-assist match of his career giving him five in his career and his first points of 2024. Montanile had his second career two-assist match now with 13 in his career
Roman Warren and Misael Gonzalez added assist, the first of each player's career

UCI improves to 2-4-1 stopping a three-match losing streak. Next up is the final non-conference match in Anteater Stadium hosting San Diego State, Saturday, September 28.

Postmatch Thoughts
Agaton Pourshahidi - "We talked before that we needed to be more aggressive on defense, getting press higher up the field, and I think we created a lot of chances from that being high up the field and stealing the ball. We need that front foot mentality."

"My initial feeling is just happy that we got results from these great attacks. We've been working on them a lot and training this where we're flooding the box and arriving well, and I'm happy that as a team we can finish these off. We've had a couple rough weeks where we really didn't connect these final crosses properly, and a little self doubt was starting to creep in, and this is really good for ourselves, all these connections we got in the box was great."

AGATON ? with authority

1-0 Anteaters in the 16th minute #TogetherWeZot pic.twitter.com/cgclmjWgZ8
— UCI Men's Soccer (@UCImsoc) September 22, 2024

Agaton again!! ?? The finish (32') for the brace from Francesco and Misael

UC Irvine 2-0 Utah Tech #TWZ pic.twitter.com/hZ10moGHS4
— UCI Men's Soccer (@UCImsoc) September 22, 2024

#RipEm pic.twitter.com/VhDbOWbPE3
— UCI Men's Soccer (@UCImsoc) September 22, 2024

HAT TRICK!!!

Agaton (80') from Francesco and Sam for his third of the night!!

UC Irvine 4-2 Utah Tech #TWZ pic.twitter.com/UfucRRgwq5
— UCI Men's Soccer (@UCImsoc) September 22, 2024