This week the Hawks’ number one men’s team were matched up against Riverside Lions on an unsettled Saturday afternoon at UWA. The Hawks were coming from a two week losing streak against a team they have beaten twice previously. The odds were in their favour.
Like the Hawks’ losing streak, they have also had multiple team line-up changes in the previous two games. This week was no different with Simon Gillespie back from injury, Leighton Keane available again, and Coach Barry Vanderputt putting his mouth guard in to help the team out after Steven DeWind and Nathan Messer were both unavailable. This is on top of Center Midfield Gavin McLarren still being out.
Thankfully for Captain Lee Hansord his luck was back up winning the toss and electing to play towards the high sun in the first half. The game started and the Hawks were quick on top of 4th position Riverside. There were frequent scoring opportunities, unfortunately none of them making a score line impact. After about 15 minutes the Hawks managed to secure a Penalty Corner; the push out from Steve Martino was good and Leighton Keane who was looking at passing the ball to Lee took a shot instead slamming the ball nicely behind the goal line after a slight reflection from the keeper’s pads.
With the Hawks in the lead the game restarted. This time the tempo was different and Riverside really started to turn the pressure on. close to the end of the first half a free hit was awarded to the Hawks (on the Hawks’ defensive 25), however the umpire realising his mistake changes his decision allowing Riverside to take a quick free hit finding an unmarked player who had a one on one with Keeper Brett Chappels putting ball into the net.
The first half ended 1-1 with both teams tied. The second half started with both teams eager to get in front. This time it was hard to separate each team with a lot of midfield play going back and fourth along the ground. There were many close calls with Riverside putting effort into attack. Luckily the Hawks defensive was too strong squashing all attacking attempts. It seemed an eternity passed for the Hawks defence before the full time whistle went off ending the game in a 1-1 draw.
The draw meant the Hawks stayed comfortably in third with decent gaps on both sides of the ladder. After some encouragement from coach Barry after the game the team is eager to gain some lost space between them and the top two teams. Next week’s game is on Sunday afternoon against 5th placed team Old Guildford at Melville.
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