By By STEVE FRANKLIN,Sports Writer
BELHAVEN — Terra Ceia’s Andy Bowen had a little luck in recording his first career hat trick.
In the opening minutes of Monday’s contest against Pungo, the Knights’ junior was credited with a goal after two Raiders collided and the ball trickled into the net to give Terra Ceia a 1-0 lead. Being the closest Knight to the ball, Bowen was awarded the first goal.
He would follow with another first half goal and bury one past the goalkeeper in the final 10 minutes of the game for the hat trick to lead Terra Ceia past Pungo, 6-2.
It was nice to see those ball go in today. Maybe our forwards can gain confidence from it.”
After Bowen was credited with the goal following the Raiders’ mishap, Bowen made it 2-0 midway through the first half as he ripped a shot past Pungo goalie David Talley.
A few minutes later, the Raiders responded with their first goal of the game as Drew Elliot rocketed a shot past Knights goalie Devon Rhodes to make it 2-1 at the half.
In the second half, Terra Ceia took advantage of several Pungo defensive lapses to break the game open.
Shortly after intermission, Terra Ceia junior Austin Van Vuren delivered a shot on goal that was deflected away by Talley. However, the ball trickled to Knights’ forward Thaddeus Van Essendelft who buried a shot into the wide open net to make it 3-1.
Less than five minutes later, the Knights went up 4-1 as Kiam Boerema delivered a high-arcing shot from 30 yards away that floated over Talley’s head and under the crossbar for a goal.
In the 61st minute, Elliot trimmed the lead in half as he notched his second goal of the game, lacing a shot into the top right corner of the net to make it 4-2.
But in the 70th minute, Terra Ceia crushed any hopes of a comeback.
Austin Van Vuren took advantage of some miscommunication from Pungo’s defense and created a one-on-one situation against Talley. The Pungo goalkeeper had no shot at making the stop as Van Vuren trickled one into the right side of the goal to make it 5-1.
Two minutes later, Bowen capped the scoring as he outraced Pungo’s defense and bulleted a shot past a helpless Talley to make it 6-2.
Terra Ceia improved to 3-4 on the season with the win over its neighboring rival, while Pungo fell to 2-4-1 on the year, The Knights will be back in action Thursday when they travel to Ahoskie Christian, while the Raiders will have two weeks off before their next contest with Lawrence Academy on Oct. 7.