KENT, WA- The Tacoma Stars (6-7) used a Nick Perera hat trick to convincingly defeat the Turlock Express (2-12) 10-3 to close out a three game in four day stretch. 2,634 fans turned out to Accesso ShoWare Center see the Stars have their biggest offensive night of the season.

After a scoreless first quarter which saw two shots total, the Stars opened up scoring with 11:19 left in the second on a Dan Antoniuk goal. Less than a minute later, Troy Peterson found the net on a pass from Nick Perera to make it 2-0 Stars. Perera also assisted Jamael Cox with 6:21 left in the second quarter and it was 3-0 Stars at halftime.

Perera notched his first goal of the night just 35 seconds into the second half for a 4-0 Stars lead. Turlock got on the scoresheet on an Ivan Campos to Adrian Plascencia goal to cut Tacoma’s margin to 4-1. They would make it 4-2 with 7:45 left in the third when Campos scored unassisted. Perera’s second goal of the night came with 6:17 on the clock. Philip Lund handed Tacoma a 6-2 lead heading into the final quarter on his first of two goals in the game.

Match Gallery: by Jeff Halstead for goalWA.net

Lund’s second goal came with 13:00 left in the game and Tacoma was cruising 7-2. A blue card issued to the Express’ Arturo Pulido with 9:14 left put the Stars on the power play and they wasted little time as Jamael Cox assisted Raphael Cox on the power play marker 24 seconds into the man advantage.

Turlock scored their final goal of the night on Carlos Manzo’s unassisted goal with 7:38 remaining. Perera’s third goal was on a Joey Gjertsen assist and Raphael Cox closed out scoring with 1:03 left.

The Stars hit the road for their next three matches beginning on Saturday January 20 when they face the Rio Grande Valley at State Farm Arena.

Catch every minute of Tacoma Stars soccer when they are home or away by logging on to http://www.masl.tv.