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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Cardinal men's soccer squad made it four-straight wins after defeating Earlham 4-1 Saturday night its final non-conference match of the regular season at Ballenger Field.

Otterbein, now 6-2 overall, matches its previous six-game winning streak from the middle of its 2015 campaign, and will look to use solid play to start the season as fuel heading into Ohio Athletic Conference play next weekend. The Cards play at cross-town rival Capital next Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Cards got off to another fast start to begin the game, notching a pair of first-half scores to take an early advantage for the second-straight contest.

Otterbein's first score came in the 31st minute off senior Noah Coons' initial score of the year, as he headed in a shot past Earlham goalkeeper Simon Dickerson following an assist into the box from junior Juan Rivas.

Rivas flipped the script in the 40th minute to put the Cardinals up 2-0, gathering a well-placed ball on the fly heading into the box from classmate Erick Juarez-Manning, before striking it in to tie for the team lead in goals with five.

The Cardinals entered halftime with an 8-5 advantage in shots, with goalkeeper Collin Hoffmann stopping one shot in the first 45 minutes of action.

Earlham notched its first score of the game shortly into the second frame, as Voya Tatarevic played the ball off a Cardinal defender from his own pass, firing the shot from about 20 yards out past the reach of Hoffmann in goal.

Otterbein responded by adding a pair of additional goals to inflate its lead to 4-1, both of which came off the foot of Rivas who captured his second hat trick of the season.

Rivas' second goal of the match came in the 60th minute as he gathered a misplay on a clear attempt by a Quaker defender, followed by a miscue by Dickerson in goal, to which Rivas slipped inside the near post. Juarez-Manning was credited with the assist on the initial touch following the defensive miscue by Earlham.

The hat trick for Rivas came just over 10 minutes later off a free kick from Juarez-Manning, to which Rivas headed in near post to give him a team-best seven scores on the year.

Hoffmann saved a pair of shots to collect his sixth win between the posts for the Cards, while Dickerson suffered the loss with six stops on the night.