Sophomore striker Danny Molineaux scored a hat trick on Friday night to lead the City College soccer team to an instrumental 3-1 victory against number two-seeded College of the Canyons.

“I am pleased with the victory, even though we didn’t play good tonight we still managed to grind out a good result,” said the hat trick hero Molineaux.

This was the Vaq’s fifth straight win (5-5-2; 5-0-1), which makes them undefeated in October.

City College started the game with a fast pace and created some good chances in the first half but couldn’t convert right away. In the sixth minute, captain Stuart Kirk collaborated with striker Molineaux, who put the ball behind the keeper for the first goal of the game to give the Vaqs an early lead.

After the first goal, the game didn’t have any real identity or composure. The Vaqs were fighting to establish position, but the game got sloppy at times. In the 30th minute, however, freshmen Lee Jackson threw the ball into Molineaux, who showed his quickness to make a play past the keeper to give the Vaqs a comfortable two-goal lead.

A few minutes later, Canyons got their first opportunity, which forced freshmen goalkeeper Ismael Guzman to dig deep and deny the visitors with acrobatic double-saves.

In the 42nd minute, a scary moment happened when Molineaux took a nasty knock to the ribs and had to be helped off the field before half time.

The first half ended with a 2-0 lead, and the coaches tried to maintain their players focus by cheering them on as they walk off the field.

During halftime, midfielder Danny Rodriguez said that it was a hard fought first half, and that they talked about establishing rhythm and possession in the second half.

The second half went according to plan for SBCC, as they created plays with their passing and established a good rhythm.

In the 55th minute, Molineaux shook off his injury and entered the field. Ten minutes later he scored a goal that will go down as one of the best goals of the season. He chipped the ball over one defender, took it on the knee, and straight volleyed it to the top left hand corner to complete the hat trick.

“I’m pleased with all my goals, but the third one was a beauty,” said Molineaux.

After the comfortable 3-0 lead, the Vaqs slowed down the tempo and focused on counterattacks.

While being dead and buried for most of the game, Canyons rallied their troops and with four minutes left they scored a conciliation goal to shorten the deficit to 3-1.

“It’s a bit disappointing that they got the goal in the end, but overall it was a good win,” said goalie Guzman.

But for coach John Sisterson, it was all smiles after managing his team to first place in the WSC, leaving the second place Canyons four points behind in the standings.

“It was an important week, I’m happy for the lads because they worked hard this week,” said Sisterson.