Jesus Garcia battles for the ball. 

JASPER, Fla. — Charlie McCullers recorded a hat trick, Jesse Howell scored his first varsity goal and the Suwannee Bulldogs defeated Hamilton County 8-1 on Friday to give Chris Joyner his first win as head coach.

Alex Rang scored twice while Justin Dalton and Hunter Merola each notched one goal. Suwannee (1-1-1) outscored HCHS 5-0 in the second half. 

Howell’s goal came on a penalty kick in the 45th minute to give SHS a 5-1 lead. McCullers, who also had an assist, completed his hat trick in the 50th minute. 

“We moved the ball around nicely. And we were able to put kids in different positions,” said Joyner. “It was great to see Jesse Howell get his first goal.”

Bio Box

	1st	2nd	Final
Suwannee	3	5	8
Hamilton County	1	0	1

S — Charlie McCullers 1’

H — Javi Cazarez 15’ assist from Ismael Gonzalez

S — Alex Rang 16’ assist from McCullers

S — McCullers 25’

S — Hunter Merola 43’

S — Jesse Howell 45’

S — Rang 45’

S — McCullers 50’

S — Justin Dalton 65’

 

Hamilton County’s (0-3) goal came from Javi Cazarez, who took a nice pass from Ismael Gonzalez and fired a long shot into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1 in the 15th minute. 

Down to 11 players because of injuries and illness, Hamilton County played the entire match without subs. HCHS coach Horacio Perez took some positives from the loss.

“To score against Suwannee — that’s big,” Perez said. “It’s a big school. We’re still growing, still progressing.”