Brian White scored his second career MLS hat trick and the Vancouver Whitecaps rallied from two goals down to a 4-3 home victory over short-handed St. Louis City on Saturday night.
White’s sixth, seventh and eighth goals of the season snapped a barren run of nine matches for the center forward, who led Vancouver with 15 goals during the 2023 season.
Fafa Picault added late insurance with his fourth goal for Vancouver (8-7-4, 28 points), which proved to be the difference when Nokvi Thorisson pulled a goal back for St. Louis in second-half stoppage time.
Sebastian Berhalter assisted on one of White’s goals as the Caps rebounded from consecutive defeats to move into eighth place in the Western Conference.
Njabulo Blom opened the scoring in the seventh minute and Eduard Lowen doubled the visitors’ lead five minutes later from the penalty spot.
But 12th-place St. Louis City (3-7-10, 19 points) remained winless away from home (0-4-5) and saw its overall winless run stretched to nine matches (0-6-3) after conceding three goals on the road for a sixth time in nine matches.
Defender Tim Parker and striker Joao Klauss missed out for the visitors, while veteran goalkeeper Roman Burki was given the night off for rest, according to reports.
White took 16 shots without scoring during his nine-match barren run, but finally saw his fortune change against St. Louis.
He cut his side’s deficit in half in the 37th minute when he ran onto Berhalter’s ball over the top, then took a shot that deflected significantly off defender Anthony Markanich’s leg, sending it looping over goalkeeper Ben Lundt and bouncing into the net.
White’s 54th-minute lever was even more unusual, with the striker racing to reach defender Jake Nerwinski’s partial clearance.
As he did so, he used the back of his heel to send an improvised shot again looping over Lundt and bouncing across the line.
He completed his hat trick with a more conventional goal, a header into the bottom corner provided by Ryan Raposo’s early, outswinging cross from the right.
–Field Level Media