BANNER ELK, N.C. – Lees Squires recorded his third hat trick of the season to lead the first seeded Lees-McRae Bobcats to a 4-1 win over the eight seed Coker College Cobras Tuesday night at Tate Field in the first round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament.

Squires (Sheffield, England) opened the scoring for the Bobcats in 43rd minute when Kyle McGimsey flicked a pass to him for the volley and the goal. The goal the Bobcats a 1-0 lead into the locker room at the half.

In the 51st minute, Squires headed a corner from Luke Staats (Almere, Holland) into the back of the net to extend the Bobcats lead to 2-0.

Squires added his third and final goal in the 54th minute on another Staats corner.  This corner was sent to the front the post where Nick Robinson (Melbourne, Australia) flicked to the back the post for Squires to finish to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead.

Logan Linton (Cocoa, Fla.) gave the Bobcats their final goal when Ian Dargravel (Neath, Wales) too the ball down the far side and laid a pass to Linton for the one-timer to make it 4-0.

Coker got on the scoreboard in 85th minute when Mike Crook got a rebound on a Daniel Shrizad free kick to give the game the final score 4-1.

The Bobcats outshot the Cobras 21-11.  The shot count was tied at six after the first half, but the Bobcats exploded with 15 second half shots compared to five for Coker.

The Bobcats advanced to play Pfeiffer Friday, November 7th at 7 p.m. in the semi-final round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament.