St. Paul’s sophomore Adrian McInnis broke through with a hat trick Tuesday night, helping propel the Wolves to an 8-0 district victory over the Covington Lions in a match played in dense fog at Jack Salter Stadium.

SPS (8-2) upped its district record to 5-0. The Wolves are tied with the Fontainebleau Bulldogs for the district lead. CHS (6-4-2) slipped to 2-3 in district.

St. Paul’s coach Trevor Watkins said McInnis had a breakout game. McInnis said it was good to score that many goals as a team.

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“We broke through from last week after only scoring three goals against Ponchatoula. This time around we took our chances (shots). We followed through and made it count,” McInnis said.

“Getting my first ever hat trick was special. It’s amazing. I couldn’t be any happier,” McInnis added.

Chad Cox got the Wolves on the board in the second minute assisted by Zachary Perret. Perret fired off a shot from the left side from about 12 yards out, which Cox directed into goal after a deflection by the goalkeeper.

St. Paul’s dominated the early play with excellent ball control with two corner kicks being awarded in the first eight minutes of play.

McInnis notched the first of his three goals in the 10th minute. McInnis chested a pass on the left wing and made a nice run beating the Covington defense before blasting in his first of three goals on the night. Seth Hagan was credited with the assist.

SPS was awarded three corner kicks during a one-minute span at the 12-minute mark. CHS starting goalkeeper Colin Mansfield was up to the challenge with help from his defense to clear the attempts off the corners. CHS’ Ronald Garay made a nice clear out on a deflection. Later in the match, Garay suffered a foot injury trying to make a tackle from his center mid position and was unable to return. The Lions’ Stephen Baudean also contributed a nice defensive play on the third SPS corner kick to deny the Wolves.

St. Paul’s continued to control the offensive flow taking three quality shots on goal in the 19th minute with Mansfield turning them away. Covington’s Matt McGee took over in net for the Lions midway through the first half.

SPS junior Juan Amaya, who netted two goals, tallied in the 33rd minute assisted by Scott Mayer to give the Wolves a 3-0 advantage.

Covington had a scoring opportunity in the 38th minute as Christopher Cassaday beat two SPS defenders. His shot was denied on a diving effort by Wolves’ goalkeeper Bryan Bowers, who had four saves in the match.

St. Paul’s named Chad Cox the Wolves’ top defender along with a quality effort from the other defensemen, collaborating on the shutout.

McInnis tacked on his second goal unassisted with only one minute remaining in the first half to increase the Wolves’ lead to 4-0, which is how the half ended.

Just 10 minutes into the second half, the Wolves struck again. SPS junior Jake Saltalamacchia, who joined the club following the Wolves’ football season as their place kicker, made a perfect throw in that McInnis ran onto, outracing the CHS defense down the right side. McInnis made a dribble and finished it off to make it 5-0, giving him his hat trick.

Saltalamacchia punched in a goal in the 63rd minute assisted by Christian Kessenich for a six-goal lead.

Amaya tacked on a goal blasting in a rocket shot from about 30 yards out assisted by Salatalamacchia with 15 minutes to play. Saltalamacchia closed out the scoring on an assist by Michael Mejia.

Saltalamacchia said the Wolves executed a good game plan.

“Covington has some good individual players, but they weren’t able to get a good chemistry to put it together,” Saltalamacchia said.

CHS coach Jimmy Inman said it is tough when you fall behind early to a quality team.

“It forces you to do things, which unfortunately we are not equipped to do. Having our youth movement on the field it is a tough thing to overcome,” Inman said.

Covington had two freshmen and five sophomores on the field during the match. “Those youngsters playing some very skilled, upperclassmen for St. Paul’ made it tough,” Inman added.

Covington hosts Mandeville tonight.