Hawks crush Chargers in season opener

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 9/13/16

The final looked more like a football score than a futbol score. The Bishop Hendricken soccer team opened its Division I slate with a 10-0 rout of Chariho on Thursday night, scoring five goals in each half. After

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Hawks crush Chargers in season opener

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The final looked more like a football score than a futbol score.

The Bishop Hendricken soccer team opened its Division I slate with a 10-0 rout of Chariho on Thursday night, scoring five goals in each half. After a slow start, Hendricken tacked on five goals in the last 22 minutes of the first half to all but clinch the win.

“That’s the most goals we’ve ever scored,” Hendricken head coach Michael Rooney said. “There were some really nice goals involving five or six passes, and a nice delivery, and a goal, and there were some individual goals that were nice as well. Everyone got a chance to score, so it looks like we won’t be relying on one or two people, that we can spread it around.”

The Hawks had plenty of chances early on, but they finally broke through 18 minutes into the action. Lucas Gesmundo took a pass from Ewan Noble inside the box, where he eluded three defenders to put a shot past goalkeeper Cam Anderson.

“We had a couple of chances and it didn’t come, and you think ‘God, it’s going to be one of those games again,’” Rooney said. “We settled down, and when we settled down we were able to pass some great passes. The passes were great.”

Hendricken converted on a corner minutes later, with a deflection finding Tucker Flint unmarked in the box for an easy score. Another unlucky bounce for the Chargers found its way to Chukwuma Onyejose in the 25th minute, who potted his first goal inside the right post.

While Hendricken had good fortune on its side in some cases, its passing overall was crisp and accurate. Noble, just a sophomore, put on a display of aerial poetry in the 29th minute. Near midfield, he sailed a pass across the width of the pitch that trailed Chukwuma Onyejose perfectly near the 25-yard line.

“He’s an excellent player,” Rooney said of Noble. “Sometimes what you have to do with some of these players is you have to restrict them in certain areas and then you have to allow them to show the skills that they’ve got. He’s got vision. He can pass the ball, and we will constantly work with him to keep him under control and constantly threading the passes through.”

Onyejose coasted past the rest of the Chariho defense and beat Anderson for his second goal of the night, making it 4-0.

The Hawks continued to be methodical. Michael Fleming got in the goal column next, but not after a couple of pinpoint passes. Noble sent the ball from near midfield again down to Chukwudi Onyejose, whose cross found Fleming right on the mark for the 5-0 advantage.

Noble would be rewarded in the second half for all of his help. In the second minute of play, he beat Anderson to the left post for his first goal of the season. Less than 60 seconds later, Chukwudi Onyejose capped the starters’ work for the evening with a top-shelf blast.

Hendricken took a 7-0 lead barely three minutes into the half, which allowed Rooney to allot some minutes to his reserves.

“This enabled us to put them in there and to get confidence for our point-of-view,” Rooney said of his substitutes. “So we know if we’re playing against this team, we can put this person in there and he’ll do a decent job. Usually we don’t get that until halfway through the season. Tonight we were able to play a lot of people, a lot of minutes, so we could see what they can do.”

They gave the Chargers some trouble as well. Noah Perry, Kevin Teran and Andreus Bargblor each picked up a tally of their own in mop-up duty, carrying the Hawks to a record amount of goals.

The Hawks will look to keep the momentum rolling against Central Falls today on the road at Macomber Stadium at 6:30 p.m. Hendricken has the chance to get off to a torrid start, as its next three opponents combined to go 9-20-13 last season.

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