It was a game that the Hawks needed to win, especially after losing to the Falcons earlier this season by a 1-0 score at Flosom Lake when the Hawks were out muscled in Coach Ron Preble's opinon,
"They played us really physical that game and we weren't ready to play that way and they took advantage of us."
The Hawks reversed the outcome by score and the way they did it as Jacob Schanning led the way as the Hawks took it to the Falcons.
Efrain Serrano Jr. scored the game's lone goal in the 25th minute taking a nice feed from Cameron Peuse. Serrano's goal was his second of the season and Peuse had his third assist of the year.
Serrano knew the run was working as he was following the play, "I saw Cam had a good run going and I just wanted to be there if he got shut off."
Peuse brought the ball down the right side of midfield almost to the mouth of the goal where the defense collapsed on him leaving Serrano open for the short crossing pass in front of the goal,
"I could see my winger was getting in a position where he was going to have to stop and he made a great pass back and all I had to do was put it in the goal" Serrano said.
The Hawks defense played well all game long as Marcus Haro
and Joseph Thompson
played heads up on the physical Falcons as Preble noted,
"Our defense played really nice today overall as there were moments that we played outstanding in our rotations and except for the last couple of minutes where it was messy, I thought we played well."
Antonio Welch had five saves on the day
as he and the Hawks shutout the Falcons, the third of the year for Welch. He lowered his goals against average to 1.30 on the season and just 1.00 in Big 8 play. Welch also recognized that the Hawks played good defense,
"My guys played real well in front of me today, they were all on the same page and were playing together real well as they seemed to be able to see what they (the Falcons) were doing and how they needed to react, a real team effort today."
With the win the Hawks are now 3-2-2 in the Big 8 and 8-7-3 overall and are now in second place in the conference, ahead of Folsom Lake and American River.
Next up for the Hawks is a road game at American River and their new field on Friday at 6pm.