| April 24th,
2005: Hawks 0 – Rangers FC - 2
The Hawks faced
up against second place Rangers FC in a battle of undefeated
teams on Sunday, April 24th at
the MD Soccerplex. The 5 PM matchup allowed Jon Knight to arrive "fresh" from
his brother's bachelors party in Vegas on the weekend for the
match, albeit late. To his dismay, the Hawks venerable player/manager
arrived at the field to find his team a man and goal down at
the 35 minute mark.
Apparently the Hawks did well down a man at the outset, but the
Rangers were able to capitalize on the man advantage off a nice
low cross and tap in finish in the box around 30 minutes in. At
the 35 minute mark, Jon Knight and Geoff Thompson arrived to round
out the Hawks side. In the closing minutes of the first half, the
Hawks applied good pressure and were almost rewarded off a slick
effort from Geoff Thompson, who danced around a defender and sent
a driven, curved shot destined for the inside of the right post
to the net, only to be thwarted off an excellent save by the Rangers
keeper.
At halftime, down only 0-1 to their opponents, the Hawks were
confident that they would be able to muster the goods for a win.
The second stanza opened in good fashion for the Hawks, who were
able to apply substantial pressure to the Rangers backline. However,
the Rangers were not broken and while the more creative and skillful
possession was certainly on the Hawks side, the counter attack
was on for the Rangers all game long. As the half wore on, the
Hawks began to tire from the effort of being a man down and the
attempt to tie up the game. After Irving Williams narrowly missed
the equalizer off a perfectly placed cross in the 80th minute,
the Hawks were lacking for solid scoring chances. A minute before
the whistle, the Rangers left no doubt off an 18 yard strike past
keeper Anthony Peters into the bottom of the net. Rangers up 2-0
for the final tally of the game. Just not a good day for finishing
for the Hawks, who had put on a great offensive display in the
first two games. The key for this squad is to get the 14-16 players
for each game so that the offensive effort isn't dulled by the
fatigue factor. The Hawks will look to rebound in next weeks matchup
with Fall 2004 Premier champs, Glover Park.
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