CLEVELAND, Miss. – The men's soccer team ended their regular season positively Wednesday afternoon with a 4-2 victory at Delta State University. The make-up match originally scheduled for Sept. 29 was rescheduled because of field conditions. The win gives Union a record of 4-12-1 overall and 2-11-1 in the Gulf South Conference. Delta State drops to 3-14-1 and ends GSC play 2-11-1.

Union took a 1-0 lead when Alex Pratt scored at 7:57. In the 29th minute Pratt netted a second goal to increase the Union margin to 2-0, which stood as the intermission score. It is the first multi goal game at for Pratt at Union. Delta State took seven first half shots, Union six. The Statesmen had seven corner kicks while the Bulldogs took three in the front half of the contest.

A goal at the 55:36 mark by Paul Ochnicki of Delta State made the score 2-1. The Bulldogs responded less two minutes later. Clayton Martin played a ball to Pratt, who booted his third goal of the contest in the 57th minute. The hat trick by Pratt is the first for a Bulldog since Nov. 16, 2012. In that match nearly a year ago, Felipe Araujo did the trick in a 10 minute time frame of a second half home win over Tennessee Temple in a first round NCCAA Mid-East Region Tournament contest. Martin made the score 4-1 when he scored off a feed from Caleb Mills at 73:15. Each of Martin's three goals this season has occurred on the road. With less than 10 minutes in the contest the Statesmen got a header from Jack Pilley assisted by Amine Rahmani to narrow the score to 4-2.

Union ended the contest with a 16-15 advantage in shots. Delta State took 11 corner kicks while Union attempted five. The Bulldogs were offside five times to four for the Statesmen. The Bulldogs four goals ties a season high set in a 4-1 win Sept. 7 at Trevecca Nazarene.

For 47 days (Sept. 20 to Nov. 5) the Bulldogs were without a win, only 16 days short of the Bulldogs 63 day regular season from opening kick Sept. 5 through today's positive result. In the 47 day window Union dropped five contests by a single goal.

Union will carry the momentum into their appearance in the NCCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs anticipate learning later this week about information for their opening round match of the NCCAA regional.

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