Sam Surridge's hat trick pushes Nashville past CF Montreal

Sam Surridge scored his first MLS hat trick as Nashville SC ended its five-game winning streak with a 4-1 home win over CF Montreal on Saturday night.

Surridge opened the scoring in the 12th minute in his second league season and scored the decisive goal two minutes into the second half. These goals brought Walker Zimmerman into only his fourth game in an injury-plagued season with his successful header after 20 minutes.

After Montreal got within 3-1 just after the hour mark, Surridge, who has scored two goals in seven games, broke through a net mess in the 82nd minute to cap his milestone night.

The win ended a 0-3-2 rout for Nashville (2-3-5, 11 points) that stretched back to a 2-1 victory over Charlotte FC on March 16.

Raheem Edwards put pressure on Nashville to commit an own goal against Zimmerman in the 64th minute to put Montreal (3-4-3, 12 points) on the board. The visitors remained competitive, but another late Nashville own goal was ruled out for offside in review and they failed to score at least a point for the first time in four games.

Despite only scoring 10 total goals early in this game, Nashville applied pressure from the start and was rewarded early. An on-side Surridge got behind the Montreal defensive line, made a cut-back attack on goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois and then easily rolled the ball into the net.

Less than 10 minutes later, Zimmerman showed no ill effects of a lingering knee problem by pushing his way above the crowd and heading home Hany Mukhtar's corner.

Shortly after half-time, Mukhtar Surridge masterfully set up the ball. Mukhtar brought the ball to the side of the penalty area and pushed it to a charging Surridge, who buried it for a 3-0 lead.

Things got a little more interesting a few minutes past the hour mark when Zimmerman inadvertently directed the ball into his own net, preventing Montreal from being suspended for the fifth time this season.

Surridge completed the hat-trick in a thunderous move into the penalty area from a late corner. A few moments earlier he hit the crossbar before finally prevailing.

Montreal is 0-3-2 all-time in Nashville.