Chad Dodson recorded a hat trick by halftime and finished with five goals as visiting South Haven eliminated Dowagiac from the Division 3 District Soccer Tournament Wednesday night.

Despite cold, wet and windy conditions, the Rams were able to knock the defending District No. 33 champion Chieftains from the tournament. Dowagiac reached the regional semifinals last year before being eliminated by eventual state champion Grand Rapids South Christian.

Dodson scored goals in the eighth, 11th and 37th minutes of the first half as the Rams, who defeated the Chieftains 9-1 in their Wolverine Conference match-up earlier this year, raced out to a 4-0 halftime advantage.

Omar Calderon had the other goal of the opening half as he scored to make it 3-0 in the 18th minute.

Dodson opened the second half just as he did the first with a goal. This one game in the 58th minute and gave South Haven a 5-0 lead.  He fifth and final goal came in the 72nd minute after Angel Rodriguez made it 6-0 with a goal in the 64th minute.

Tony Canonie ended the match 43 seconds early as he scored the eighth goal.

Despite the lopsided final score, Dowagiac coach Mike Williams said his team played well and did all the things the team worked on Tuesday in practice.

But it just wasn’t enough.

“We played our game plan right,” he said. “We just didn’t power to handle them. It shows how young we are when we play an experienced, veteran team like South Haven. South Haven is not just a good team right now, but they are one of the better teams that they have had. In conference we were the only team that scored on them. That shows that it’s not just us.

“We are just unlucky to have them in our district instead of a regional or at state. Because our regional is not nearly as tough as it was last year. It’s come down quite a bit. They either go to the Kalamazoo district or they come down to ours because of their location. Bangor and Hartford went down and so South Haven came across along with Paw Paw, who are tough to say the least.”

To prove Williams’ point about playing well, Dowagiac had 13 shots on goal Wednesday night compared to only two in the first meeting.

“We had some good counter attacks that we brought down, but their defense is solid and their keeper is on top of things,” Williams said. “It’s a veteran team and that’s the difference there.”

South Haven advances to take on the winner of the Paw Paw-Berrien Springs match on Saturday.

Division 3 District semifinals

South Haven…8

Dowagiac…0

Halftime score

South Haven 4, Dowagiac 0

First half

SH – Chad Dotson 8th minute

SH – Dodson 11th minute

SH – Omar Calderon 18th minute

SH – Dodson 37th minute

Second half

SH – Dodson 58th minute

SH – Angel Rodriguez 64th minute

SH – Dodson 72nd minute

SH – Tony Canonie 80th minute

Shots on goal

South Haven 23

Dowagiac 13

Saves

South Haven 12 (Christian Davis)

Dowagiac 14 (Paul Lamphere)