EMMITSBURG, Md. – Freshman Chris Wheeler (Newcastle, Australia/St. Francis Xavier) scored a career-high three goals to power Mount St. Mary's past Robert Morris 6-0 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) opener for both teams on Friday.

Wheeler became the first Mount (5-5-0, 1-0-0 NEC) to notch a hat trick in a match since Simon Hodkin accomplished the feat against Felician on Sept. 12, 1999. It marked the seventh time in Mount Division I history a player had three goals in a match. Wheeler scored the first two goals of the game for the Mountaineers in the second and 26th minute before completing the trick in the 61st minute.

Along with Wheeler's performance, Eric Detzel (York, Pa./Central York) recorded a goal and an assist while Will Thomas (Mount Rainer, Md./The Heights) and Alex Kem (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) also scored in the winning effort. Chris Davis (Townsville, Australia/Kirwan State) made four saves in the match.

Matt Felice turned away seven shots for the Colonials (2-8-1, 0-1-0 NEC) in the loss.

Mount St. Mary's took the early advantage and never looked back to earn its first win against Robert Morris since 1999 and start the league schedule with a win for the first time since 2006.

Wheeler started the Mount's conference season off on the right foot when he found the twine off a pass by Vinnie Berry (Helensburgh, Scotland/St. Patrick's) 1:54 into the match. The freshman then recorded his second tally of the afternoon when he took a cross from Kyle Patrick (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) at 25:38 to hand the Mountaineers a 2-0 advantage.

Jimmy Kane (Delran, N.J./Delran) had his shot turned away at 44:39, but Thomas was there to knock in the rebound to give Kane and Gary Phinith (Gaithersburg, Md./Magruder) their first assists of the year. The Mount scored three goals in a half for the third time this season and went into the locker room with a 3-0 margin.

The offensive outburst continued in the second half when Eric Mullins (Finksburg, Md./Mount St. Joseph) had his cross tip off the Felice's finger tips before Detzel knocked in his fourth goal of the season at the 52:29 mark.

Detzel then help set up Wheeler's team-leading eighth tally of the season when he feed Wheeler, who headed the ball into the back of the net at 60:33. Kem capped the six-goal performance with his first goal of the season at the 71:49 mark.

Wheeler has scored in four-straight contests, marking the first time a player has accomplished that feat since Hodkin found the twine in four consecutive matches in the 1997 season. The freshman has eight goals for 16 points this season, the most goals in a season since Brandon Scarfield scored eight times in 2002.

Mount St. Mary's, who also posted a 5-0 victory against Howard this season, posted two five-goal performances for the first time since the 1995 season when the Mount defeated UMES 8-0 and Bucknell 5-0.

The Mount returns to action on Sunday when the squad hosts Saint Francis (Pa.). Game time is 1 p.m.