ITTA BENA, Miss. ? A hat trick by freshman Sam Stocker highlighted a 6-2 win by South Alabama on Sunday over host Mississippi Valley State. Senior Jenn Edgar also scored two goals as USA picked up its second victory of the season, improving to 2-6 overall. Mississippi Valley State suffers its first defeat of the season, falling to 5-1.

“We were much more composed around the net today,” Jaguar head coach Mike Varga said.  “We scored some pretty good goals and it was good to see the team do what we have been working on in practice.”

Just five minutes into the game, USA scored its first goal as Sam Stocker received the pass from sophomore Carly Williams and beat MVSU’s keeper Maria Del Guercio.  It was the Jaguars’ quickest goal of the season and Stocker’s first career score.  MVSU had allowed just one goal in its first five games of the season.

The game was halted for one hour in the 12^th minute because of lightning.  It was the second time this season the Jaguars had a game halted due to lightning.  USA and South Florida had delay in the second game of the season.

In the 18^th minute, senior Jenn Edgar scored her second goal of the season as she received a pass from Stocker and Williams for the score. 

MVSU cut the deficit in half as Dana Eddy scored in the 30^th minute, but the Jaguars did not relinquish the pressure, scoring two more times in the half to build a 4-1 lead.  Stocker scored her second goal of the game in the 38^th minute as she received a pass from freshman Sam Slover off a corner kick.  It was the Jaguars first goal on a corner kick this season.

The Jags closed the scoring in the half as Edgar scored her second goal of the game in the 43^rd minute.  USA had nine shots in the first half, while MVSU had six.  Both teams had two corners in the opening half.   

Eddy found the back of the net in the 54^th minute to open the scoring in the second half, cutting the deficit to 4-2.  Stocker scored her third goal for the hat trick in the 75^th minute with an assist to freshman Whitney Shelton to put USA up 5-2.  Just over three minutes later, USA scored its sixth goal as freshman Amanda Olivas found the back of the net for her first career score.

“We got more chances and scoring so early in the game really helped our confidence today,” Varga said.  “We were definitely more effective with our chances today.”

Stocker tallied the first hat trick for the Jaguars since Tanya Allegretti against Florida International on Oct. 10, 2003.  It was the first hat trick for a freshman since Cindy Rainville tallied her first of three career hat tricks on Oct. 3, 1998 against Howard.

USA returns home to open conference play next Friday against Arkansas-Little Rock at 7 p.m. at The Cage.  USA will conclude the weekend series against Arkansas State on Sept. 24 at 1 p.m.