DONNELLSON – Central Lee Head Coach Justin Schau said his Hawks don’t lose, they learn.
The Hawks learned something again on Thursday night. That they can play with the top teams in the SEI Superconference despite suffering their second one-goal loss this week, with a 3-2 setback against Danville at Central Lee.
“I’m learning we’re getting in our own head a little bit and we’ve got a little mental breakdown going on,” Schau said after the loss.
“I told them when we’re good, we’re really on. We had great build up, moving the ball well and doing what we had to do to get the open shot, and then we’re just running around in circles.”
The Hawks are coming off an overtime loss to Hillcrest Academy on Monday. The Ravens are 3-0 on the year and 2-0 in conference play. Danville is 4-1 on the season and 3-1 in conference play with the loss coming Monday against WACO.
Central Lee played from behind all night, but responded well against a Danville forward squad that liked to work from the middle up with junior midfielder Colin Pealer working things up the seam.
The Bears got things going five minutes into the first half with the Hawks on the move offensively. A swiped ball at midfield quickly turned into pressure for Central Lee keeper Hunter Gregory and Pealer blew one into the center high for a quick 1-0 lead.
But Dante Merschman countered seven minutes later with some accuracy from about 30 feet out when he fired a shot high from right side over the Bears’ Aiden Konig that curled in to the top under the crossbar to tie things up at 1.
Danville would score again at 24:52 on a shot right from the circle that snuck in past Gregory into the right corner of the net.
The Hawks would then take over the momentum and keep play on their half of the pitch for most of the rest of the first half, getting three shots on goal before the end of the half. But Konig was able to fight off the onslaught.
At 3:27, Merschman had a free kick and sent the ball just right of a 3-man wall toward the goal, but it caught the crossbar and went high and out. Then, with 1:39 left in the half, the Hawks caught Konig out of the net, but missed left on a quick shot leaving the score at 2-1 at the break.
Danville would get the first shot on goal out of the break when a shot from about 15 feet out sailed high. The Hawks would take advantage of the miscue and score less than two minutes later to tie things up when Landon Crank sent a beautiful ball about 30 yards north over a backpedaling defense and dropped it right in front of Landan Lowenberg who slipped it past Konig to knot the score at 2.
The deciding goal would come at the 24:17 mark when the Hawks were whistled for handball in the square giving Pealer a free shot. Gregory broke to his right on the whistle and Pealer blasted it low left into the net for a 3-2 lead that would end up being the final score.
“We just got defeated because we couldn't find the back of the net,” Schau said. “We’ve got to get over the hump. But I’m super happy that we’ve played two of the best teams in the conference and we’re that close. We’ve got so much of the season left to fix it.”
Schau said on the stat book the Hawks look like they’ve won the last two matches, but they can’t find a way to get through to a win.
He said Pealer is one of the best players in the area and the Hawks had him contained initially but then faltered.
“We got shoulders into him and we slowed him down and then we backed away and he went to work,” Schau said.
“I just don’t know what’s going on in their heads right now. At halftime I told them we get a shoulder on them, they're flustered, but when they give them space, they score two goals.”
The Hawks travel to Wapello 0-5 (0-3) on Monday and then host Columbus on Thursday.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here