Birthdays. A time for cake, presents, and hat tricks? Zac Stout celebrated his 19th birthday in style last night with a three-goal performance that pushed the Washington boys’ soccer team past Burlington 5-1 in the Demons’ home opener. 

The newbies to the Southeast Conference in the Grayhounds found the back of the net first in the opening half, but with 10 minutes until break Stout scored his first to tie it up. The floodgates opened after that with Noah Suchan and Simeon Buie each scoring before the birthday boy finished off the hat trick with two more. Stout tells KCII Sports scoring on his birthday has turned into a tradition. “Last year I didn’t have the chance to because of covid, but my freshman and sophomore years I scored on my birthday. I really wanted to do that again today and I was lucky enough to get three. We passed really well in this one. Last game it felt like the opponent was passing around us, but today it was like we were passing around them so it felt a lot better.” Brayan Arreola dished out two assists and Cole Anderson managed 10 saves in goal. 

The Demon girls made a trip to Bracewell Stadium and had a 1-0 halftime lead, but the Grayhounds prevailed 2-1. 

Both the boys and girls move to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the SEC.