JOLIET, Ill. --- The Zakhar Shkidchenko Show continued Wednesday night at Joliet Memorial Stadium, where the senior forward authored his fourth hat trick of the season in a 5-2 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory for the University of St. Francis men's soccer team over Trinity International University.

Shkidchenko played a role in four of the team's five goals with his three tallies and one assist. Leading just 2-1 in the 70th minute, he delivered all three of his scores in a span of just under seven minutes to put the Saints up 5-1 at 77:41.

The three goals propelled Shkidchenko to the top of the NAIA charts with his 18 goals on the campaign, or two more than his next closest challenger. The 18 goals also leave him just one goal shy of tying USF's all-time single-season record set by both Mario Serapiao in 2000 and Mike Mravle in 1994.

Roberto Centeno provided the only scoring for either team in the opening half. The St. Francis freshman registered his first collegiate goal 29 minutes into the contest on Shkidchenko's second assist of the campaign.

USF (5-8-1, 5-3-1 CCAC) wasted little time in extending the advantage right after the break. Pablo Rubio Guerra scored just 2:01 into the second half for his third goal of the season.

That proved to be an important goal after Trinity International (1-12, 1-8) cut the deficit in half at 63:41 on a goal from Josiah Fuchs.

Shkidchenko then went to work, producing multiple goals for the fifth time in his St. Francis career and scoring at least one goal in eight of his last nine matches.

The win was the fourth in the last five contests for the Saints with Carson Heglund recording the victory in goal, his third of the campaign.

Up Next
The Saints start a season-high three-match road trip on Saturday (Oct. 16) when they face Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights. The conference matchup kicks off at 2:30 pm.

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