The Hawks started off the season 2-0 with victories over the Nittany Lions of Penn State-York, 3-1, and the Lancaster Bible Chargers, 9-1, to get their season off to a hot start. In the opening game vs Penn State York, HCC was far more the aggressor and took control of the game from the opening whistle with several players getting going in the early stages. The Hawks would continue this trend for much of the 1st half, battering the Nittany Lion goal, but unable to put anything away. Late in the 1st Half the Nittany Lions would then punish the Hawks with its lone shot of the 1st half, sending the Hawks down 1-0 into the break. The Hawks started off the 2nd half the same as they did the 1st, as they continued being the aggressor. The Hawks would finally find the breakthrough early in the 2nd half when Alan Paz found Bryson Rohrer with a lovely through ball that Bryson then calmly put away. It didn't take long for the Hawks to find the back of the net again, with Rohrer getting his second goal of the night. Alan Paz, and Carson Feeser combined well in the midfield before Feeser found Rohrer to make it 2-1. Rohrer would then complete his hat trick with Jonny Tiznado finding him at the top of the box and hitting a strike low and to the corner to make it 3-1. The Hawks would push the rest of the game to add to that total, but The Nittany Lion keeper had a strong night, making save after save.
The Hawks would follow up the win over Penn State York with a game vs Lancaster Bible, a team the Hawks beat 3-2 the previous season away. This game would be very different than last year, as the Hawks had total control of the game from start to finish. Carson Feeser would start off the scoring early, scoring in the 1st 5 minutes. Feeser received a ball from Ben Rankin before dribbling multiple Charger players and slotting the ball home. The Hawks would continue to test the Chargers net, but were unable to finish until the 25th minute when Kundai Makusha came off the bench to spark the Hawks offense. The Hawks then rattled off 5 goals in 10 minutes, with Makusha getting 4 goals off of 2 assists from Hakeem Marafa, and one assist each from Jonny Tiznado and Feeser. The Hawks would then finish off the half making it 6-0 with Ben Rankin scoring a goal off of an assist from Makusha. This completed Makusha's impressive appearance off of the bench, with 4 goals and an assist in a 15 minute spell.
The Hawks would put 3 more away in the 2nd half with MJ Ribis scoring a goal after nice combination play between Max Adu and Bryson Rohrer, followed by 2 wonder strikes from Feeser, and Finlay Smith. The Chargers would get a late consolation goal against the run of play, but only after Gabe Beckering made a fine penalty kick save, making the final score 9-1.
The Hawks, who were now sitting at 2-0 to start the season went away to #6 in the country and perennial national power, CCBC Essex Tuesday night (9/2). The Hawks started off brightly, pushing forward, and testing the Knights early with its front 3, but it would be a defender that almost put them on the board early. Ben Rankin put a pinpoint corner on the head of MJ Ribis who would have been celebrating had it not been for the finger tip save of Knights keeper Jacob Peace. The game was then even a bit before Essex began to take advantage of the Hawks naivety, forcing Hawks Keeper Braydon Blair to make several good saves. The Knights' pressure would eventually force the Hawks to break, making a defensive mistake and giving away the first goal to Ryunosuke Noda. The Knights then found 2 more goals before the half, with a long range upper 90 finish from Alvaro Acosta, and a good team goal finished off by Denny Cruz-Bonilla. The Hawks had some soul searching to do at half time and came out in the 2nd half a different team. The Hawks started off on the front foot and almost put one away early when Kundai Makusha made a good run, but couldn't finish from close range. The Hawks continued to control the game though, and were rewarded when Marvin Brown found Makusha with a great ball, before Kundai rounded the keeper and placed the ball in the net to make the score 3-1 and upping his tally to 5 goals in 2 games. The Hawks continued to push to find another goal, testing the Knights back four, and the keeper continuously. The Hawks would come close to closing the gap to one when Jonny Tiznado had a thundering strike just grazing the crossbar. The Hawks didn't have to wait long before finding another breakthrough when Hakeem Marafa hit a long range beauty of a free kick to make it 3-2. The Hawks continued to threaten going forward to find another goal, and almost had the game tied when Cole Kriner found the head of MJ Ribis, who flicked the ball past the keeper, only for it to go just wide of the post. As the Hawks continued to push to knot the game up at 3, the knights countered against the run of play to finish off the game with only a minute to play, and making it 4-2.
The Hawks will continue their tough week, with a trip to top 25 ranked Montgomery College on Thursday at 2pm. Please consider coming out to show your support and or watching the livestream via Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6BW5K-yF1A.
