MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Bill Elliott claimed his 250th career win as the men's soccer coach at UWF on Thursday, as the team took down Auburn-Montgomery 5-0. West Florida improved to 7-5-2 on the year with the victory.
 
Elliott's 250th victory makes him the first coach of a Gulf South Conference school to reach the milestone, and he leads all other GSC coaches by at least 129 overall victories. Elliott stands in the top 20 in Division II history in winning percentage (.662 entering the season), and total wins (267), when combined with his record at Tennessee Wesleyan in the 1993 and 1994 seasons. Elliott is just the 16th coach in DII history to reach the 250-win milestone. He also ranks third in GSC history in winning percentage.
 
On the pitch, the day belonged to freshman forward Erick Rivera, who logged his first hat trick and scored his second, third and fourth goals of the season in the victory. Rivera got assists from Kameron Bethell, who leads the team with six helpers on the year, on his first goal of the day and keeper Phil D'Amico after a clearance that led to Rivera's second goal.
 
His third was unassisted, as the freshman went from the right corner of the 18-yard box to the bottom right corner of the net to score. It was the first hat trick by a UWF freshman since Dillon Gallet scored three times against William Carey in 2011.
 
Rivera's fellow freshman Arick Gonzalez began the scoring for West Florida, quickly finding the net after just five minutes of play. The goal came about on a Tristan Rehrig corner kick, and Gonzalez crushed a header into the corner by the near post. Gavin Gillies' team-best fifth goal of the year came on a cross in the box from Josh Sauer, who was credited with his first career assist.
 
The game marked the fifth shutout of the year for UWF, and D'Amico has been in net for all five of those. In the month of October, the Orlando, Florida, native has allowed just nine goals in more than 755 minutes in goal, good for a 1.07 goals against average.
 
West Florida's regular-season GSC schedule is completed, and the Argonauts have guaranteed a spot in the GSC Tournament, which begins next week. As things stand now, UWF is in second place with 17 points. With the three teams just below UWF in the standings still to play a game, West Florida could land anywhere from second to fourth when the tournament seedings are completed.
 
West Florida will travel to Mobile, Alabama, to face Spring Hill on Saturday afternoon at 1 pm.