Mankato East freshman Brandon Welter moved from center-midfield to forward just two games into the season. The Cougars boys soccer team has been reaping the benefits ever since.

Welter scored three goals and his brother, junior Alex Welter, added another to lead East to a 4-0 victory over St. Peter in a nonconference boys soccer game Thursday at Thomas O. Anderson Fields.

It didn’t take long for the younger Welter to accumulate his first two goals — the first one of which came in the 11th minute on an assist from Adam Mohamed.

Just six minutes later Welter found himself in a breakaway and went to his left to the far side of St. Peter goalie Dylan Idso to give his team a 2-0 lead on an assist from Brian Ewel.

Welter would have to wait until the 58th minute for his final goal, one in which he had a bit of luck to help him reach the hat trick. Shortly after playing the ball in from outside the box, Welter’s kick deflected off St. Peter’s Charlie Bushell and redirected past Idso for his third goal.

“I’m surprised I had that many chances,” Brandon said. “Their defense looked pretty good at the start. A lot of it was the good passes from my teammates.”

The older Welter got in on the scoring nine minutes later on the most perfectly executed goal of the game.

Ewel played in a long pass from left to right toward Alex, who had to slide feet-first in order to get enough of the ball in the net and complete the scoring.

“I think we were offsides about 16 times our first game and it’s been less and less since,” Brandon said. “I think we only had three or four today, which allowed our through balls to really work for our fast players up top.”

Brandon Welter spends part of his summer playing with the Olympic Development Program, a team he had to be invited on to play for.

“Brandon Welter has been getting better and better each game,” East coach Jerrad Aspelund said. “He’s a smaller kid, but he has moves like nobody else. He can score right through guys and get through them for the shot on goal. Fortunately for him, he knows where to put them.”

Welter began the season at center-midfield, but coach Aspelund moved him up to forward for the past two games.

“The center-mid is the backbone of the team — you run everything through the center,” Aspelund said. “Now all Brandon has to worry about is putting balls on net and the ball on the goal. I think that helps him out.”

Brandon Welter, who first played varsity soccer in last year’s section tournament, scored one goal last season and two more this season before Thursday’s hat trick doubled his career total.

“I just want to score goals and I think that’s what I’m supposed to do at forward,” Welter said. “As much as I can score, the more it helps the team.”