SACRAMENTO, Calif.- The Cosumnes River men’s soccer team is off to their best start in years, currently undefeated with a 3-0-3 overall record heading into the season’s fourth week.  However, the Hawks are heading south for what will prove to be their biggest test of the young 2013 season.

The Hawks recently hosted the Nor Cal JUCO showcase last weekend, and finished with a strong performance, closing out the weekend with a pair of victories and a draw.  CRC still has a few areas they’re looking to improve upon before the team embarks on a road trip that will see them take on perennial power Hartnell, and a pair of southern California opponents.

“During the tournament, we saw that we were having trouble in certain areas,” said men’s soccer assistant coach Brandon Evangelista.  Specifically, the staff believes they’re giving balls away in the midfield, and need to improve the positioning of their four midfielders.  “We turned our focus yesterday on our four midfielders and worked on their spacing and positioning with each other,” said Evangelista. 

In addition, the staff has worked to address defensive recovery, as well as working on finding and playing off of their center forward.  “This week in practice we focused on the movement of the #9 (center forward) and what his role is, and how to create scoring chances off him,” said Evangelista of the team’s practice objective.  The staff is pleased with what they’ve seen from the team with respect to shoring up these areas in practice.  “In both those topics we have seen great improvement and understanding on what the roles are and their duties.”

The staff has also been pleased with the performance of a few players during this week’s training.  In particular, a number of forwards have performed well and shown steady improvement over the course of this past week.  “Players that are showing well in practice and improving have been Eric Tutuwan, Alex Herman, Derrick Chu, Isaac McDaniel,” said Coach Evangelista prior to today’s training session. 

Specifically, Coach Evangelista believes Tutuwan has made the most of the team’s off week.  “I would have to say Eric Tutuwan has been showing the best at practice and improving a lot since the Yuba City game.”  “He is understanding the #9 role a lot better and has made his stock with (head coach Ron Preble) and I go up, to even give him a chance to start more games.”

Cosumnes River will head to Salinas on Tuesday for their match against Hartnell.  The Hawks will then head south for a pair of matches against Cuyamaca (Sept. 21) and Mira Costa (Sept. 22).  They’ll return home the following week for their Big 8 conference home opener against Santa Rosa.