The first hat trick in club history gives the Utah Royals their third win in a row

SANDY – It took Cloe Lacasse a half to do what no player in Utah Royals history had ever done in an entire game.

The 31-year-old Canadian striker scored twice in the first 20 minutes of Sunday's home game against Seattle Reign FC and then scored a third goal in first-half stoppage time to complete the first hat trick in the team's history Year goes back first iteration in 2018.

“You definitely can’t complain,” Lacasse said of the hat trick. “It was great to score that early goal. I think that momentum obviously worked in our direction and we were able to kind of take advantage of those other opportunities.”

Lacasse's first-half hat-trick was also the first three-goal performance by a player in an NWSL game this season. The first two goals were solo goals from Lacasse, the third was prepared by Claudia Zornoza.

An early double yellow for the Reign gave Utah easily its most dominant half of the season as Seattle failed to make any shots and took a 3-0 lead by the final whistle.

“Honestly, there probably should have been more goals, but it was nice to see the benefits of the finishing that we practiced every day,” Lacasse said of the offensive performance. “We had three goals, we didn’t concede, so that’s what we’re aiming for, right?”

The win marked the Royals' third straight victory and allowed them to once again avoid elimination from the NWSL playoffs.

Utah had some luck with a penalty in the box that was overturned by VAR early in the second half, but otherwise the defense held firm and a total of three Seattle shots were allowed, including just one on goal.

The win moves the Royals up to 10th in the table for now, just 4 points below the playoff line with two games remaining in the regular season.

The team hits the road next week to face Angel City FC before returning home to close out the season against Gotham FC on November 1st at America First Field.