HAMBURG, N.Y. – Penn State Altoona's Grady Ballard (State College, PA/State College) set three new men's soccer program single game records on Saturday afternoon, helping the Lions to a 6-2 victory in their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference game of the season at Hilbert College.

Ballard put five goals on the board for Penn State Altoona (5-1, 1-0 AMCC) to set a new team record for the most goals scored in a game, and his 10 points on the day also set a new men's soccer program single game record. Additionally, Ballard and Ciaran Corr (Newtown Square, PA/Marple Newtown) each registered 12 shots, tying for a new Penn State Altoona men's soccer single game record for shot attempts.

Each of those three records was previously held by former Lion Jordan Crist, who scored four goals, totaled nine points, and took 11 shots in a win over Hilbert on October 20, 2018.

In addition to Ballard's five goals, Corr also found the back of the net once. Cameron McCarthy (Bloomsburg, PA/Bloomsburg) recorded two assists for his first collegiate points, Chad Reighard (Altoona, PA/Altoona) had one assist for his first collegiate point, and Damian Dangler (Warminster, PA/William Tennent) also tallied an assist.

Tommy Packevicz (Trumbull, CT/Christian Heritage) made one save in goal to pick up his fifth win of the season for the Lions.

Penn State Altoona scored three goals in the first half, en route to a 3-1 advantage by the intermission.

Ballard scored his first goal of the day at 4:02 to give the Lions a 1-0 lead, and at 18:52, he took Reighard's cross from the left side of the field and fired a shot from inside the box past the keeper to make it 2-0.

Hilbert (0-5, 0-1 AMCC) cut the Lions' lead in half at 23:30, when Sebastian Flewellyn's hard shot from the point beat the keeper to make it 2-1.

But just over 11 minutes later, Corr beat the keeper on a breakaway for his fifth goal of the season, increasing Penn State Altoona's lead to 3-1 at 34:32.

The Hawks narrowed their deficit back to one early in the second half. John Schroth's feed into the box found Hector Harris, whose shot found the bottom left corner of the goal at 49:27 to bring Hilbert to within 3-2.

But Ballard scored three more times throughout the rest of the period to cement Penn State Altoona's win.

McCarthy's feed into the middle of the box came to Ballard, who scored at 76:03 to give the Lions a two-goal lead again, 4-2. Seven minutes later, Dangler passed to Ballard, who beat the Hilbert defense and sent a shot past the keeper to make it 5-2. McCarthy set up his team's final goal of the game, passing the ball up the center of the field, where Ballard collected it and scored his eighth goal of the season at 85:26.

Penn State Altoona finished the day with big statistical leads over Hilbert in shot attempts (35-12), shots on goal (20-3), and corner kicks (8-1).

Ballard and Corr each finished with a game-high 12 shot attempts, with Ballard leading all players with nine shots on goal and Corr putting four shots on goal. Dangler and Reighard had two shots on goal each, and McCarthy, Abdul Sattar (Mount Oliver, NJ/Mount Olive), and Bailey Musselman (Altoona, PA/Altoona) each had one shot on goal.

Next up, Penn State Altoona returns to non-conference play this Monday, September 20, when the Lions will travel east to face the University of Valley Forge in a game beginning at 4:00 p.m.