Pena nets second career hat trick in Jags rout of TAMUT

Sophomore Yahir Pena has a habit of scoring goals in bunches.

During his freshman campaign at UHV, the Pharr native set the program record for most goals in a game with four against Texas College as he went on to score seven times last season.

He put on a sequel to his breakout performance by netting a hat trick off the bench on Saturday to help the Jaguars to a 6-0 rout of Texas A&M-Texarkana in Red River Athletic Conference play at The Cage.

"I'm just very grateful for it," Pena said. "Thanks to God for giving me the opportunity to be here and play. We're just getting more confidence as a team. We're bonding more and that helps us to each game."

Saturday was a strong bounce-back performance after UHV (4-1-2, 2-1-1) suffered its first loss of the season on Thursday against LSU Shreveport.

Because of that, head coach Adrian Rigby wanted the Jaguars to play at a high level from the start on Saturday.

UHV responded by scoring in the 17^th minute when Osiel Robledo slotted home a pass from Klaidas Pudlauskas for his second goal of the season. Matt Sturgeon finished off a set piece after a header from Einar Rolfsen hit the bar in the 24^th minute. Pena then scored his first two goals in the 31st and 44^th minutes to put the Jaguars up 4-0 at the break.

Rhuaraidh Menzies resumed the barrage in the 67^th minute with a header on a cross from Diby Kouassi with a second assist going to Mathias Jorstad. It was the first career goal for the freshman center back from Scotland.

Pena capped the scoring in the 76^th minute on a pass from Felipe Rangel.

In total, the Jaguars peppered 20 shots against the Eagles (3-4-2, 1-2-1) with 12 going on frame.

"I think it says a lot about the guy's integrity for coming out and playing with a lot of energy, a lot of desire at home," Rigby said. "I thought we were a little emotional, too relaxed and lacked energy on Thursday. We watched some film Friday and got on the same page. I'm proud of the guys for coming out with the result we did today."

Despite the lopsided result, junior goalkeeper Tyler Kaeppeli had to earn his keep between the posts on Saturday.

The Vernon, British Columbia-born, goalkeeper made a career-high eight saves to preserve the clean sheet, the 16^th of his career which is three away from tying Brian Redmond's record of 19 set from 2014-16.

"Everybody has their job," Kaeppeli said. "As a goalkeeper, your job is to keep the ball out of the net. Our field players can't do everything by themselves. Every now and then, I need to help out. So, I'm glad to help them out whenever I need to. I'm just glad to do my part just as much as they did theirs."

The Jaguars return to action with a road trip to Austin to face conference foe Huston-Tillotson on Saturday, Oct. 5.