High school soccer: Elias Hatungimana nets hat trick in Granger win

WEST VALLEY CITY — Before his team's big Region 2 home game against Murray on Wednesday afternoon, Granger star striker Elias Hatungimana told one of the Lancers' assistant coaches that he was going to score a hat-trick.

He put his money where his mouth was.

Hatungimana scored a hat-trick with three goals in the opening 23 minutes of the second half of Wednesday's league game, and he added a fourth five minutes later to propel Granger to a 4-2 victory over Murray.

With the win, Granger stayed atop the Region 2 table and improved to a perfect 4-0. Three of those victories have come against fellow region title contenders Skyline, West and now Murray.

On Wednesday, Hatungimana's first two goals in the second half both put Granger ahead by a single goal. Both times, Murray answered brilliantly to level the scoreline.

But Hatungimana kept putting the ball in the back of the net, and his third and fourth goals proved to be too much for Murray to handle.

"This is my sixth year at Granger, and I've been waitin' for one guy to step up and say, 'I'm gonna win this game for my team.' And that was Elias," said Granger coach Opie Okeson. "All he does is score goals. He's not a very good passer, he's actually not a very good dribbler. But he just shoots it (well).

"He's a very special player," Okeson added, "and we're glad we have him."

With four goals Wednesday, Hatungimana moved his scoring total on the season to double-digits, as he now has 11.

And it was his latest two finishes that enabled the Lancers to get past a pretty solid bunch from Murray.

After a 0-0 first half, Wednesday's contest sprang to life.

Goals by Hatungimana in the 42nd minute and 51st minute were canceled out at the other end by Murray's Alex Souvall and Adrien Baldwin in the 44th minute and 61st minute.

Less than two minutes after Baldwin's equalizer, however, Hatungimana put Granger permanently in front.

The ball was played through to him on the left side, and the left-footed player calmly drilled his shot across the face of goal and in.

And just five minutes later, he settled matters with a brave finish past Murray's on-rushing goalie.

"It was good," Hatungimana said of Wednesday's win. "We have people to be a great team."That point shouldn't be lost in Hatungimana's four-goal performance.

The senior striker is surrounded by some pretty talented players, and Okeson was thrilled with the way that all of them responded Wednesday.

"The last two or three years, which is when these guys have played, we've just dealt with a lot of adversity," said Okeson. "We've given leads away, we've lost games in the final minute, we've lost games in overtime. They've all learned that the way they react to something going bad determines a lot.