Sam Surridge posted a hat trick and Cristian Espinoza had a goal and an assist as Nashville SC raced past visiting Orlando City SC for a 5-0 victory on Saturday.

Surridge, who had two hat tricks in a 24-goal season in 2025, scored once in the first half and twice in the second to help Nashville (4-0-1, 13 points) continue its unbeaten start. Brian Schwake (one save) tallied his third clean sheet.

Orlando (1-4-0, 3 points) mustered just one shot on target to Nashville’s nine. Goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau made four saves but allowed five goals in Orlando’s second 5-0 loss in the last three games. Saturday marked the club’s second game with interim head coach Martin Perelman after mutually parting ways with Oscar Pareja.

After Nashville’s Alex Muyl’s header was saved by Crepeau in the game’s opening minutes, Espinoza fired in his second goal of the season to give the hosts a 1-0 lead at the five-minute mark. Espinoza took a pass from Andy Najar and sent in a screamer from the right of the box over the outstretched Crepeau.

Nashville had three shot attempts before Orlando’s first — a Duncan McGuire shot 14 minutes in.

Following Nolan Miller’s yellow card for aggressive play, Surridge’s penalty kick doubled Nashville’s lead 28 minutes in.

Surridge and Patrick Yazbek each had chances to tack on, but Crepeau saved both shots to preserve the two-goal halftime deficit.

Surridge extended the lead to 3-0 10 minutes into the second half, as he rebounded a loose ball in the box, scoring a left-footed shot.

The Nashville star continued his dominant outing, getting a pass from Espinoza and scoring from the left of the box in the 67th minute to push the margin to four. Warren Madrigal’s second goal of the season gave Nashville a 5-0 lead in the 80th minute.

–Field Level Media

Jonathan Bamba scored his second goal early in the second half and the visiting Chicago Fire earned a 2-1 victory on Saturday against struggling Philadelphia Union.

Hugo Cuypers added his fourth goal late in the first half for the Fire (2-2-1, 7 points) who earned their first away victory of the season after leading the Eastern Conference with nine in 2025.

Chris Brady made three saves as Chicago avenged its elimination by Philadelphia in last year’s first-round playoff series and snapped a four-match winless run against the Union in all competitions.

Milan Iloski scored his first goal for Philadelphia just before halftime. But the Union (0-5-0, 0 points) extended the worst start for a reigning Supporters’ Shield holder, less than 72 hours after their elimination from the CONCACAF Champions Cup with a 1-1 draw at Mexico City’s Club America and a 2-1 aggregate defeat.

Bamba put Chicago in front in the 58th minute.

From near midfield, Cuypers spotted Robin Lod down the right. Lod eventually dribbled into the right edge of the penalty area on his right foot, before cutting back onto his left to cross.

With Cuyper in the center of the box, the cross sailed beyond just him, where Bamba connected with an excellent side-footed volley to beat Andre Blake inside the left post.

Philadelphia pressured for an equalizer, but Chicago came closest to scoring the game’s fourth goal. Maren Haile-Selassie missed narrowly wide on the break in the 63rd minute, then Lod rattled the crossbar from a similar attack in the 82nd.

Both teams scored during the more than seven minutes of first-half stoppage time.

First, it was Chicago through Cuypers.

Lod’s initial pass was deflected out wide, where Andrew Gutman reached it on the left flank.

Gutman drove forward and curled in an outswinging, left-footed cross. Cuypers ran between Philadelphia’s center backs to meet it with a powerful header past Blake from six yards out.

Philadelphia leveled from a long throw-in four minutes later. Alejandro Bedoya flicked on Frankie Westfield’s throw from the right, then Iloski won the second ball as he somehow generated enough power to loop his header over Brady and under the crossbar from near the penalty spot.

–Field Level Media

Emanuel Sharp scored 18 points and second-seeded Houston delivered an 18-0 knockout punch in the first half to sail to an 88-57 victory over 10th-seeded Texas A&M on Saturday in a South Region second-round contest at Oklahoma City.

Chris Cenac Jr. registered 17 points and nine rebounds and Milos Uzan added 15 points for the Cougars (30-6), who will face either third-seeded Illinois or 11th-seeded VCU in next week’s Sweet 16 in Houston.

Mercy Miller added 12 points as the Cougars notched their fifth consecutive 30-win campaign and reached the Sweet 16 for the seventh straight season. The only program with a longer streak this century was Gonzaga, which made nine straight Sweet 16 appearances from 2015-24.

Josh Holloway was the only scorer in double figures for the Aggies (22-12) with 12 points. Leading scorer Rashaun Agee was limited to seven points.

The Cougars connected on 44.1% of their field-goal attempts, including 8 of 31 from 3-point range (25.8%). Houston held a commanding 46-29 rebounding edge and grabbed 19 on the offensive glass.

Texas A&M shot just 34.6% from the field, including 6 of 24 from behind the arc (25%). This was the second time in the past three NCAA Tournaments that the Aggies were eliminated in the second round by Houston.

The Aggies were within 25-24 after a 3-pointer by Zach Clemence with 7:43 left in the first half.

But Texas A&M missed 12 straight field-goal attempts and went 6:34 without scoring as Houston turned a one-point lead into a 43-24 advantage.

Cenac scored six of the final eight points during the run, including two free throws to cap it.

Pop Isaacs made two free throws with 1:09 remaining to end the scoring drought for the Aggies. Rylan Griffen’s runner with 28 seconds left halted the field-goal famine.

The Cougars led 46-28 at halftime and then came out charging in the second half. Kingston Flemings and Sharp each converted three-point plays and Cenac added a jumper to make it a 26-point lead just 42 seconds into the half.

The contest remained one-sided the rest of the way and the lead reached 30 on Miller’s turnaround with 1:17 to play.

–Field Level Media