The Onyejose Twins help the Hawks tie against the Avengers

By Cam Brennan

The Hawks got back to business after the Homecoming weekend. They kicked off Homecoming with a 2-0 win over the East Providence Townies. The Hawks football team finished the weekend with a 41-32 win over Barrington. With all that said, the Hawks' soccer team was back in action when they played against the East Greenwich Avengers this past Tuesday. The Avengers came into the game with a 3-3-2 record (11 points), while the Hawks sported a 4-2-2 record (14 points).

This game was played in memory of Alexandria Stricklin, who'd recently died at the young age of fifteen. Alexandria was the sister of former Hawk soccer player Nolan Stricklin. She attended as many games as possible and was always a spirit that never died in the crowd for the team. Fifteen Hawks released ballons into the air, and within the balloons was a prayer for Alexandria and her family.

The game got off to a slow start with both teams' battling back and forth to get possession. The action picked up when the Avengers had a corner kick attempt. The ball was in perfect position for a goal, but the ball was punched away by Senior keeper Alex Amado. To Amado's relief, the ball hit the crossbar and was cleared by Senior defender GianFranco Paterno.

The Hawks' first major opportunity came on a penalty in the box, drawn by freshman midfielder Chukwudi Onyejose. Chukwudi handed the ball over to his brother, freshman forward Chukwuma Onyejose, to take the penalty kick. Chukwuma caught the Avengers' keeper, Nolan Cooney, leaning and put it in the top right corner, giving the Hawks a 1-0 lead in the twenty-fourth minute.

The Avengers wasted no time in striking back, as Andres Narajo went down the field and had a point blank shot on Amado. The shot was straight off the hands of Amado and rolled into the back of the net, tying the game at 1-1 in the twenty-sixth minute. The Hawks wanted to put more pressure on EG's keeper, because they knew that they wouldn't get many chances against Cooney. With that in mind, the Hawks forced Cooney to make a great play on a corner shot. A few minutes later, junior Craig Conway had a long throw-in, which ended up on the head of Chukwuma Onyejose. By the time Cooney saw the ball, it was behind him, giving the Hawks a 2-1 lead going into half.

Coming right out of the half, the Hawks were looking to extend their lead over the Avengers when senior Brennan Martin's shot went over the net after he and Cooney made some contact in the forty-second minute. The Avengers tied the game in the fifty-fourth minute on a Ryan Douglas goal, which found its way to the right bottom corner to make the score 2-2. Through the rest of the match the Hawks' chances were stopped by Cooney. He stopped two corners and two free kicks in the second half and finished the game with twelve saves. The tie was bittersweet for the Hawks, as they had many chances throughout the night to put the game away.

The Hawks' next game is against the 4-5-0 Cumberland Clippers on Saturday, October 11th ,at Cumberland. The game begins at 2:30.