Hawken bounces back from loss to Gilmour

Senior Zeki Zai had a first-half brace as Hawken rolled to a 4-0 CVC interdivision win Oct. 12 at Beachwood.

The Hawks (10-3-2), coming off a 3-2 home loss to rival Gilmour two days prior, were dominant in the attack in the opening 40 and enjoyed a 20-2 shots on target advantage in the match.

“We could have played a little better,” said Hawken assistant Marius Giulvezan, filling in for his brother Dani, who missed the match to attend his son’s senior night at Kenston.

“We got through the comfort of taking the lead, so we took our foot off the pedal. We talked at halftime, and said, ‘You’ve got to keep playing. You still have to play your own game.’ It’s not about scoring 50 goals. It’s still about playing the right game with the right passes and the right movement off the ball. There’s a couple of gaps we still need to work on. Going into the playoffs, that’s going to be important for us in order to move to the next level.”

Zai opened the Hawks’ account in the eighth minute,

Video interview with Hawken’s Reed Abrams, Chris Lillstrung’s postmatch analysis and full audio interviews with Hawken assistant Marius Giulvezan and Hawken’s Zeki Zai. NEWS-HERALD.COM.

then extended the lead to 2-0 in the 16th with a well-struck left-footed effort. Reed Abrams added a third in the 22nd after being sprung by Eric Oyen service, and Oyen provided the final margin on a header off a corner in the 43rd.

“I feel like we definitely bounced back from our loss on Tuesday against Gilmour,” Zai said. “I feel like the team really came together today. We were able to bounce back. The first half was a lot better than the second, but I feel like we did a good job playing together.

“I think it was good that we had (the loss to Gilmour), in the sense that it’ll prepare us for the playoffs in case we go down. I’m happy that it happened — the only positive is that it’s a wakeup call, and we can look forward to the playoffs.”