Mad Hatter: White scores three as Storm top Grinnell

INDIANOLA, Iowa – Flashy or not, Mitchell White gets the job done. And on Wednesday night, he got it done three times.

The junior forward moved into elite company by recording his second career hat trick and the Simpson men's soccer team beat Grinnell 5-1 on Wednesday night.

White's three goals increased his season total to six and moved him into a tie for sixth all-time at Simpson with 26 career goals. The blue-collar goal scorer is just the sixth player in Simpson history to record multiple hat tricks in a career, adding to his three-goal performance against Crown as a freshman in 2011.

"The best way to describe Mitchell is that he's gutsy and he sells out in the box," head coach Rick Isaacson said after the game. "He's not always the flashiest goal scorer, but he's willing to do the dirty work, put in the time and scrape and claw for balls in the box. That's how he scores goals: he competes and battles."

White has made a career out of battling in the box and scoring in a variety of ways. On Wednesday, he beat the keeper in the 32nd minute for his first score, took a header in traffic from Collin Hemann in the 82nd for his second and closed the night when he finished off a great cross from Spencer Cook in the 83rd.

White assisted on the first goal when Kyle Kusy found the back of the net for the third game in a row, giving Simpson a 1-0 lead just eight minutes in. Cody Jacobson made it 2-0 with his goal in the 29th minute as Simpson went on to a 3-0, halftime lead.

With four goals Monday and five Wednesday, the days of one-goal games seem like a distant memory.

"It's been encouraging to finally start to see us put some goals on the scoreboard," Isaacson said. "I think it was just a matter of time, because we were creating opportunities, we just weren't capitalizing."

Luke Aronow made two saves in the first half before Austin Schafer minded the net for the final 45 minutes, making seven stops.

Joseph Brown scored the lone goal for the Pioneers (2-4).

The Storm enjoy a weekend off before defending the home pitch when AIB comes to town Sept. 25.