York, Pa. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Men’s Soccer team got the Conference side of their 2017/18 season started off right as they picked up two wins over the weekend defeating Penn State Mont Alto 3-0 on Saturday and defeating Penn State York 3-1 in the Sunday Contest.

On Saturday, Marin Marina (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin HS) put on a show as he collected his first hat trick of the season scoring all three goals in the contest. Marina’s first goal came in the 21^st minute of action on a penalty kick. He followed that up with two late game goals coming in the 71^st minute and the 89^th minute. Colin Bucsok (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) had a big game in net as well making four saves including stopping a crucial penalty kick to help preserve the shut out. Bucsok picked up his first collegiate shut-out in his second game.

The PSUGA Soccer team was able to out shoot Mont Alto 29-8 and also had the advantage in shots on goal with 13 to Mont Alto’s one. The win moved the Soccer team to 1-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2015/16 season when they finished with a record of 5-6 in conference play and finished in 4^th place overall.

With a win under their belts on Saturday, the Soccer team would travel to York, Pennsylvania for their second conference game of the weekend when they did battle against Penn State York as they continued their stretch of four straight games on the road to start the season.

Marina would once again get the offense going in this one as he put PSUGA ahead with an unassisted goal in just the sixth minute of the ball game. Belmo Nurkic (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin HS) would then give the team some wiggle room as he scored just three minutes later to give PSUGA a two goal lead nine minutes into the contest. Bucsok was great in goal once again as he did not allow a goal in the first half and the team would go into half time up by two goals.

York would get their first goal of the night in the 65^th minute of action when Carter Miller scored an unassisted goal to make it just a one goal game. Marina would then strike again for his fifth goal of the weekend, his second of the day, as he beat York Goal Keeper Maksim Zingman who came out after the ball. That shot would put the game out of reach and PSUGA would go on to win by the final score of 3-1.

With the two weekend wins, the Soccer team now sits at 2-1 overall on the season and now sit at 2-0 in conference play. They are currently in second place in the Penn State University Athletic Conference sitting behind Penn State New Kensington who are 2-0-1 in conference and 3-0-1 overall.

The Soccer team plays its fourth road game of the season on Thursday September 21^st as they are in non-conference action traveling to Westmoreland County Community College at 5 p.m. The soccer team plays its first home game this Sunday when they continue PSUAC conference action facing off against Penn State Schuylkill at 1 p.m.