Nobody could have predicted it. Not the players, not the coaches, not even Liam Patrick ’03 himself could have known what would happen Saturday afternoon.

In the 40th minute of the game, Patrick, a back-up forward, still had not set foot on the field. By the end of the game, with a mere 20 minutes of playing-time, Patrick would score four goals.

One of soccer’s rarest feats is the hat-trick, in which a single player scores three goals in one contest. Patrick topped that accomplishment by scoring four goals in Pomona-Pitzer’s 5-1 downing of Occidental.

"I felt strong going into the game, and it all just came together. I have to credit the midfielders for setting me up," said Patrick.

Pomona-Pitzer’s other goal, the eventual game-winner, was scored by Alex Pickrell ’05.

The victory over Occidental gives the Hens a 3-2 record in SCIAC and a 4-5 overall record. After losing its first two SCIAC contests, the team has won its next three, and sits alone as third place in the conference, poised to make a run for the conference title.

"We have gotten better (since SCIAC play opened). We are still turning the ball over too much, but we’re doing better. There is a long way to go, and we have to keep working and doing the things we’ve been doing in practice," said head-coach Bill Swartz.

The recent turn-around for the Sagehens started with an emotional 1-0 shut-out over California Lutheran, in which Matt Lee-Ashley ’04 scored the game’s only goal in the 3rd minute of action. The Hens followed this win with another shut-out versus Caltech, 3-0. In both these games, the Sagehens relied on tenacious defense and solid goal-keeping by Jay Schneider ’04 to win.

In Saturday’s victory over Occidental, the Hens again played well defensively. However, the Tigers kept it close until the final fifteen minutes, when P-P pulled away in blow-out fashion.

The first score of the game did not come until the forty-one minute mark of the first half, when Patrick, having been in the game for mere seconds, took a feed from Richard Cannon ’05 and rifled one into the back of the net.

The score was 1-0 at halftime, but Occidental evened the score at 1-1 twenty minutes into the second half. The game-tying goal came on a counter-attack after a failed Pomona-Pitzer offensive rush.

Minutes later, the Sagehens countered with the go-ahead, and eventual game-winning goal.

The score came off a Pomona-Pitzer corner kick. From the corner, the ball was kicked to the far post, where Andrew Watkins ’03 headed it back to the near post. There, Rodolfo Bravo ’04 passed it across to Pickrell, who booted the ball into the back of the goal.

"I was pleased with our performance. We showed more patience in the attack and created more scoring chances from the very first minute of the game. Once they tied it up, we were more resolved to win," said Swartz.

The score stayed 2-1 until the last fifteen minutes of the game, when Patrick scored three consecutive goals off of feeds from Mario Velez ’04, Lee-Ashley, and Bravo respectively. Bravo chipped in with two assists on the afternoon.

"He works hard all the time and has always been a good team player. Sometimes you’ll just have a day like that," said Swartz of Patrick’s effort.

Even with the 5-1 drubbing of Occidental, the team still was disappointed that they did not put the game away earlier.

"We need to come prepared to the games. We have to keep focus and come ready to play," said Patrick

Pickrell added to these comments.

"We played fairly well, but didn’t pick up the tempo until the last 15 minutes to put the game away."

On Wednesday, the Sagehens won their fourth consecutive SCIAC contest with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Whittier in double overtime.

The Hens, who never trailed in the contest, got their first goal from Joe Amick '04 off of a corner kick. Velez picked up the assist.

Then, with mere seconds remaining in the first half, Amick passed the ball from the left side to captain Andrew Watkins 02, who received the pass at the top of the semi-circle. Watkins proceded to fire the ball into the upper-right corner of the net as the last second of the half ticked away.

Whittier scored the lone second-half goal, to tie the game at two and send it into overtime.

In the game, Pomona-Pitzer took a total of 33 shots, but the Poet keeper was solid.

However, in the second overtime period, Lee-Ashley rifled a shot past the goalie, just inside the near post, for the game-winner.

The victory moves P-P to 4-2 in SCIAC and drops Whittier to 2-4 in the conference.

Now, the Hens, who started the season 1-5, have caught a hot-streak, and look to knock off Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (10/10) and Redlands (10/13). These squads are 1-2 respectively in the 8-team SCIAC.

C-M-S is the front-runner in the conference. Right now they are 6-0 in the conference, and 11-0 overall. The Stags are the number 3 ranked team in all of Division III men’s soccer, and number 1 on the Pacific Coast. Yet, many Sagehen players hold that the University of Redlands is better.

In the words of Scott Coleman: "Our goal is to be within striking distance of first place. This is a funny conference: anyone can beat anyone. We just need to work on finishing and keeping our mental focus."

With the second half of SCIAC play about to begin and the championship in sight, P-P can’t afford otherwise.