Birmingham Legion FC’s Bruno Lapa earns Player of the Week after first hat trick in club history

TAMPA, Fla. – The USL Championship announced the Team of the Week for Week 21 of the 2022 regular season on Tuesday, with Birmingham Legion FC midfielder Bruno Lapa voted the Championship Player of the Week presented by Konami eFootball after recording the first hat trick in Legion FC’s history during its 6-1 victory last Wednesday night against Loudoun United FC at Protective Stadium.

Now in his third season with Birmingham, the 2020 Championship All-League selection made Legion FC history as it continued its rise up the Eastern Conference standings. The Brazilian opened the scoring in the 22nd minute as he received possession centrally in midfield before driving forward and picking out the bottom-left corner of the net, and added a second two minutes before halftime as he shielded off a defender inside the right half of the penalty area to receive a pass from Jonathan Dean and shot low in the left corner. Lapa completed his hat trick four minutes into the second half, calmly finishing from the penalty spot as he became the sixth player in the league to notch a hat trick this season.

Lapa earned 71 percent of the ballot to claim the award. Orange County SC’s Milan Iloski finished second on 18 percent after he recorded another two-goal performance on Saturday night against San Diego Loyal SC to move into the lead in the Championship’s Golden Boot race.

The Championship’s Player of the Week is selected by the USL National Media Panel, which is made up of representatives from each media market in the Championship.

GK – Ben Lundt, Phoenix Rising FC: The German shot-stopper continued his shutout streak with another pair of clean sheets against Oakland Roots SC on Wednesday night and Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC while recording 10 saves across the two contests.

D – Jonathan Dean, Birmingham Legion FC: Dean delivered a strong pair of performances as Legion FC took six points from the week, recording one assist and six chances created overall while completing 93 of 108 passes and winning 12 of 18 duels in victories against Loudoun United FC and Hartford Athletic.

D – Jordan Scarlett, Tampa Bay Rowdies: Scarlett scored his first goal of the season to help the Rowdies to a 3-1 victory on the road against Indy Eleven and was also solid defensively, winning 2 of 2 tackles and making eight recoveries while completing 49 of 60 passes.

D – Morey Doner, Monterey Bay F.C.: The Canadian helped…