2008 Woodie Awards
Roos romp on Harris' hat trick
David Cordill
Issue date: 10/27/08 Section: Sports
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Harris found the back of the net twice in the first frame and again in the second for the sixth three-goal performance in UMKC history.
"It's amazing, especially on Senior Day," said Harris on his feat. "It feels awesome."
The trio of strikes moves Harris into the lead among UMKC goal scorers with ten on the year. He also leads the team in points with 24 total on the season.
With the win against a conference opponent, the Kangaroos (8-4-2; 3-1) move into sole possession on second place in Summit League standings, trailing Oakland University by only three points.
Head Coach Rick Benben talked about the implications of the win.
"It was a huge game," he said. "It put us a long way towards getting us into the conference tournament. But we still want to win the conference title outright."
Benben said he liked what he saw from the Kangaroos defensive against what he called "a good attacking team."
"Coops [UMKC sophomore goalkeeper Ken Cooper] was solid at goal," he said. "Chris Markey, John David [Hernandez] and Matt Kopsky played really good too. Quinty [sophomore defender Brian Quintana] and [freshman midfielder] Sean Butler also do a ton of work for us. Those guys and players like Garret Guthrie and Miguel Rodrigues are the unsung ones. The demands on them are a lot."
UMKC opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Guthrie targeted a pass to Harris near the top right corner of the penalty area.
Harris then chipped the ball nicely over ORU goalkeeper Irving Peralta for his first goal of the match.
The Golden Eagles (5-7-2; 2-1-1) equalized the match at 1-1 in the 30th minute on Carlos Pinto's fifth goal of the season.
Pinto found momentary space amid the Kangaroo defenders and was able to punch the ball under a diving Cooper for the score.
The stalemate was short-lived. Four-and-a-half minutes later, the UMKC junior midfielder Bryan Perez set up a through ball to Harris who was again near the top left of the penalty area.
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