TURLOCK—One of the thrilling things about joining the Chico State men's soccer team is the cleatsteps one gets to walk in. Legendary players like Chris Wondolowski and alumni like professional musician Mat Kearney are only two of them. Jacob Chong joined them and four others in the history books Wednesday, becoming the seventh freshman to record a hat trick in the program's history in a 6-0 victory at Stanislaus State.
 
Chong is the 18th player in program history to register a hat trick and the first since Andrew McCombs did it on October 20, 2017. It is the 23rd time it's happened for Chico State, which has had four players accomplish the feat twice, something that Chong certainly has an opportunity to do, having already done it in his 13th match with the Wildcats.
 
Chico State had not scored six goals in a match since that Oct. 20, 2017 match. The Wildcats' six-goal victory is its first since a 7-1 victory at Simpson University in Redding on Sept. 17, 2008 and its first against a fellow NCAA Division II side since a 6-0 win at Cal State Hayward on Sept. 24, 1997.
 
The Wildcats, ranked No. 11 in the first Super Region 4 Rankings released earlier Wednesday, improved to 9-4-0 overall and 5-4-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).
 
Stanislaus State slipped to 3-11-0 overall and is winless in nine CCAA matches.
 
Chong wasn't the only standout performer for the Wildcats Wednesday. Freshman Anthony Kaskie made his first collegiate start a memorable, logging his first collegiate goal and first two collegiate assists. Garrett Hogbin scored two goals. And Justin Bethke registered two assists.
 
Kaskie set up both of Chong's first-half goals. He hustled down a loose ball right at the corner flag, keeping it alive, and then beating a defender as he tip-toed down the touch line. He lofted a left-footed service toward the top of the six-yard box and Chong accelerated through four defenders to meet the ball with a leaping header, flipping it inside the far upper-V just 7:22 into the match.
 
It didn't take long for the two to pair up again. Thirty-eight seconds, to be exact. Hogbin poked the ball away from a Warriors striker to start a counter attack, fueled by a great give-and-go between Cooper Renteria and Chong.
 
The ball eventually found its way to Kaskie on the left flank and he looped a ball into the box toward Mikey Hirsch, who leapt for it at the near post, taking a defender with him. The ball sailed over their heads, however, and Chong (who never stopped his run toward the mouth of the goal) outraced a defender and the goalkeeper to the ball and flicked it inside the right post with a header.
 
Chico State piled on four more goals in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
 
Hogbin, who scored in each of the Wildcats' first four matches of the season, broke his eight-match scoring drought in the 47th minute, chesting down Servando Higuera's free kick and then poking it off a defender and in from six yards out.
 
The Wildcats' fourth goal may have been the prettiest of the night. Chong overlapped Joey Scotti on the dribble down the right flank and then cut a pass back toward the PK spot when he reached the end line. Bethke was there but facing the sideline, so he touched a pass a few feet to his right where Kaskie was ready to one-time a shot inside the far post in the 48th minute.
 
Hogbin notched the brace in the 54th minute. Samuel Licona found Hirsch free on the left flank and Hirsch looped a pass toward the PK spot. Hogbin timed his run perfectly and arrived in time to volley it inside the left post from 12 yards out.
 
The Wildcats' sixth and final goal, and Chong's third, came 69 seconds later. This time it was Higuera playing a nearly identical ball to the one Hirsch had just a minute earlier. But this one took a deflection off a defender and rolled out to Bethke just inside top-right corner of the 18-yard box.
 
Bethke played a quick pass right back across the six-yard box where Chong trapped it with his left foot and then touched it inside the left post with his right.
 
The goal was his team-leading seventh of the season, which ranks fifth in the CCAA and first among freshmen.
 
After playing seven of its first nine CCAA matches of this season on the road, Chico State will now be home for its final three of the regular season. The Wildcats will host rival Sonoma State Sunday at 2 p.m., Cal State East Bay on Friday, Nov. 7, at 4:30 p.m., and Cal State Monterey Bay at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9.