DAHLONEGA – The University of North Georgia women's soccer team dominated USC Aiken in an 8-1 victory at the UNG Soccer Field at Lynn Cottrell Park Saturday evening. The Nighthawks move to 5-1-0 on the win and 1-0 in Peach Belt Conference play after winning the opener against the Pacers. 

It was an onslaught offensively from the Nighthawks throughout the entire contest, especially early in the game. 

From the start, it was the Adleigh Wheeler show. The junior midfielder scored a pair of penalty kick goals in the first six minutes of the match to give UNG a 2-0 advantage. 

By the 31st minute, Wheeler cemented the first hat trick of her career. As Wheeler unleashed a screamer past the Aiken keeper to make it 3-0, she also made some history for the Nighthawks. 

Wheeler's hat trick comes as the second this season for UNG. It follows a hat trick from freshman forward Sam Cottle who scored three in the Nighthawks' most recent game on the road against Lincoln Memorial. 

With hat tricks in consecutive contests, Cottle and Wheeler mark the first instance in the NCAA Division II era in program history in which UNG has had a hat trick in back-to-back games. It's also just the fourth time in the same time period the Nighthawks have had multiple hat tricks within the same season. 

Even after Wheeler quickly put UNG in front, the Nighthawks were not satisfied. 

In the 38th minute, senior forward Meghan O'Brien netted her second goal of the season. O'Brien, who also scored in the 4-2 win at LMU, gave UNG a 4-0 lead and became the eighth Nighthawk scorer with multiple goals already this season.

In fact, in just six games, UNG has eight players with multiple goals. Of those eight, four of them (Wheeler, Cottle, sophomore Chloe Diaz and freshman Blanca Cruz) have scored multiple goals in a single game. 

The aforementioned Diaz netted her second and third goals of the season Saturday against the Pacers as well. The first of which came in the 41st minute to make it 5-0 just before halftime. 

Out of the halftime break, sophomore defender Grace McGil, who returned from injury for the first time this season against USC Aiken, scored her first goal of the season. 

Perhaps one of the most impressive and "feel good" goals of the game came in the 63rd minute when McGill received the ball from UNG junior goalkeeper Faith Bullied. As McGill pushed up field, she dished the ball to a teammate. In a textbook give-n-go, McGill received it back at full speed toward the net. She got two steps into the box and unleashed a curler right past the keeper for her first of the season. 

USC Aiken scored its lone goal of the game in the 73rd minute to make it 6-1. 

However, the Nighthawks added two more tallies by game's end as Diaz blasted her second of the game in the 81st minute followed by junior midfielder Alex Clark who scored her second goal of the season just before time expired in the 89th minute. 

With the win, UNG turns its attention to United Soccer Coaches (USC) No. 9 Catawba who comes to town on Wednesday, Sep. 25 at 3 p.m.