Throughout his career, Kevin de Lange has put together one virtuoso performance after another.
Sunday afternoon's performance against the 2019 Mid-South Conference Regular Season Champions was another example.
With 39 career goals coming into the contest, de Lange notched a trio of goals to claim a hat trick and tie Jeff Suter for a career record with 42 blasts while Eli Maurer's 73rd minute goal added to the final total in a 4-1 victory for Shawnee State (5-2-3, 3-2-3 MSC) over Life (Ga.) in a contest held at Shawnee Turf in Portsmouth.
Shawnee State, who moved to 2-0-1`over its last three affairs, scored three of its four goals in the second half to break a tight contest throughout the first 60 minutes of play. The Bears outshot the Running Eagles by a 16-12 margin and claimed a 7-0 advantage on corner kicks in the affair.
de Lange puts name with Suter at top of record book
Posting his best individual game since the fall, junior forward Kevin de Lange proved to be relentless in his attacking ways.
Deadlocked in another 0-0 score late in the opening half, de Lange used his 40th minute blast off of a pass from Maurer on the right side of the box to put the Bears ahead by a 1-0 margin less than five minutes before the halftime break.
Tied at a 1-1 count following a 58th minute goal by Bart Koostra, de Lange then found magic again on the left side of the box after taking a pass from Joao Toledo and scoring. de Lange then scored for a third time in front off of a Thomas de Graauw find to complete the hat trick.
With his three-goal effort, de Lange tied Jeff Suter (1991 to 1993) for the most goals in program history for a single career, with 42. The forward from The Netherlands now has 12 goals and three assists on the season for a 27-point output, and now has 103 points for his career to sit just eight points away from Suter's all-time best mark of 111.
Maurer continues inspirational play
A critical component to Shawnee State's success, Eli Maurer continued his strong play over the last three weeks in Sunday's affair.
Following his first half assist to de Lange, the junior scored arguably the most impressive goal of the game, in terms of style, by taking a corner kick from Thierry van den Bergh and rocketing it past the outstretched arms of Fabian Pekruhl for a goal himself in the 73rd. The conversion marked Maurer's first career goal with Shawnee State in his 29th appearance with the Bears.
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Along with the above duo, Bas Markus made five stops in goal to lead the Shawnee State defense while van den Bergh, Sjoerd Reefman and Carlos Somolinos Bravo aided Markus greatly with their backline work.
With the win, Shawnee State will turn its attention to a matchup against Cumberlands (Ky.) Tuesday, March 16. Game time is set for 4 p.m.
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