Resilient Hawken sees out victory

From the touchline on a humid afternoon Aug. 28 at Harvey, Hawken coach Vlad Muresan implored his side to “suffer” for a result.

Suffer the Hawks did. Succumb they did not.

Gage Gretter and Johnny Drockton scored first-half goals, and that and a gutsy defensivethird shift after halftime was just enough to exit Painesville with a 2-1 victory and still unblemished at 2-0-1.

Albeit not the prettiest 80 of futbol in program lore, it was nonetheless effective.

“I’m very proud of my team because it was a game where we had to suffer a little bit in the second half, and every great team in the world knows how to suffer,” Muresan said. “There are moments where your opponent is better than you — and not even better than you; they’re putting pressure on you, you’ve got to be able to suffer. And we knew how to suffer.”

Gretter opened his side’s account in the third minute, taking Alex Zivic service and slotting a lovely left-footed strike.

The standout junior midfielder than earned a penalty kick in the 17th with some tricky ball work on the left side of the box that elicited a two-footed slide tackle attempt to dispossess. Drockton stepped to the spot for the PK and calmly netted it for a 2-0 lead.

In a match featuring seven combined shots on target, though, the Red Raiders (2-1) kept it a competitive 2-0 eyeing a lifeline, led by their playmaking senior center mid Julio Espinoza.

That lifeline came in the 42nd, when Espinoza served a quality through ball for Marcos Armendariz, who pounced on some defensive-third miscommunication for an easy finish.

Harvey, with Espinoza at the controls along with Brandon Torres, who had a fine second 40 as well, forced Hawken to dig deep in its workrate.

The Hawks, paced by center back Nick Bollinger, hung in admirably to see out the result.

If anyone on the pitch was justified in feeling some exhaustion, it was the senior, who punted for the Hawken football team the night before in a 42-28 loss to Doylestown Chippewa.

“The heat made it tough, and it really showed on everybody, with a couple of us going down early in the first half,” Bollinger said.

“They definitely attacked a little bit better in the second half. But I think the defense did well. I think once you get to that point, the last 15-20 minutes, and it’s hot and you’re fighting hard, I know for me, I just don’t feel it anymore. I just play and give it everything I’ve got.”

The Red Raiders finding their way back into the match after a far-too-direct opening 40 was encouraging to Coach Natalie Sisler.

“We definitely came out pressuring, much better and playing better, possessing the ball a little bit better,” Sisler said. “It was what I was looking for. I feel like the first half, we came out a little scared and way too direct overall. We have a couple guys out, so I think that hurt us. Young guys are having to step up in those roles that they’ve not used to. But once they got into the second half, they felt more comfortable I think in their positions.”