On Friday night 10/16 the Soccer Hawks rallied from a 1-0 deficit to scratch out a 2-1 over visiting St. Joseph’s College. St. Joe got on the board early with a goal at the 5 minute mark on a great free kick (a Beckham bender) from just outside the PA. From that point on the Hawks came fighting back and started controlling more of the game but did not get on the board themselves until the 54th minute when Scott Greubel (senior, St. Louis Oakville HS) scored directly on his free kick from at least 35 yards out leveling out the score. Once on even terms the Hawks upped the pressure around St. Joe’s net until in a battle for the ball in the Puma penalty area one of their defenders pushed Jack Wedemeier (junior, from Cape Notre Dame) to the ground forcing the referee to “whistle up” the infraction and point to the penalty spot. Finally, in the 15th match of the season the Hawks were awarded a PK! On several occasions during the season the Hawk coaching staff, players, and fans thought a PK had been earned with no whistle coming. Even in the St. Joe game there were two other PK opportunities but no calls. But at last, one was finally awarded and Wedemeier’s shot was hard and true and found the back of the net in the 85th for the game winner.
Sunday 10/18 saw the Hawks lose 2-0 to visiting Wisconsin-Parkside. The match was pretty even throughout the first half with Parkside only out shooting the Hawks 3 to 2 over the first 45 minutes. Both of the Hawk shots demanded excellent saves by the Wisconsin goal keeper. It appeared that the Hawks were “right in there” and ready to pull off a victory. However, QU came out for the second half a bit sluggish and gave up a goal on a shot from 25 yards out that was deflected and caught Hawk keeper Kyle Dillman moving the wrong way as he went to cover the initial shot. Then at the 64th minute Parkside’s Rangers got a clinching goal. The Hawks kept trying to get back into the game and looked to have scored only to see the Parkside keeper pull off another excellent save on a blast by Jeff Vaninger (sophomore, St. Louis CBC HS). After that, the Hawks just ran out of time.
Sunday’s match was the final home game for 5 senior players, goal keeper Kyle Dillman (LaFollette HS, Madison WI); defenders Scott Greubel (Oakville HS, St. Louis MO) and Tom Dawson (Notre Dame HS, Chicago IL); midfielder Jayme Groark (CBC HS, St. Louis MO) and also midfielder Andy Kling (DeSmet HS, St. Louis MO) who unfortunately missed the entire season due to injury. All five have been important players for the Hawks throughout their soccer career’s at QU and they also have been excellent students in the classroom and positive citizens in the QU and Quincy communities. They will be missed when this season finally winds down.
What’s ahead for the Hawks? Three more road games remain of the regular season. Currently the Hawks are 7-7-2 overall and 6-5-1 in the GLVC with Conference games coming up on Friday 10/23 at Lewis University (Romeoville IL) at 2:30 PM, and Sunday 10/25 at the University of Illinois at Springfield at 2:30 PM, and a non-conference match on Wednesday 10/28 at Columbia College at 7 PM in Columbia Mo.
To be included in the GLVC Post Season Tournament the Hawks definitely have to win one of their GLVC matches this weekend. Two wins, or a win and even a tie would be better. So the team has it’s work cut out for it and it’s destiny in it’s own hands. QU doesn’t have the luxury of just letting other teams in the GLVC lose games this weekend to enhance the Hawks chances of getting into the tournament. They have to step up and win themselves. There is no substitute for winning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment