Going Hard in Charm City
Keeping up their road-warrior attitude, the Mighty Hawks traveled south to Baltimore for a round-robin day against the hosting Dockers and the visiting DC Eagles – and boy, was it a big day out!
Kicking off sharply at 11 in the morning, the Hawks faced the hometown team. In what was a tight game, both sides kicked astray, with pushes into the forward 50s being squandered with misses. It was a bruising game as well, with Dan Greenberg and ERC sharpshooter Aleks Fedirow both going down to leg injuries. Baltimore pulled ahead in the second half to go home with a two-goal win, 6.11.47 to 4.11.35
After a short respite for the Baltimore-DC showdown, the Hawks were back on the field to wrap up against the visiting Eagles. Down two travelling members, the Hawks got some added breath through two Dockers suiting up – and unfortunately, they would become a necessity as the body count rose. With Damo Holland catching an early blow to the head, and captain Greg Glasgow suffering a leg injury, the Hawks were doling out icepacks left and right.
It didn’t stop the Hawks from pressing forward, keeping great pressure downfield while Robert Sartori played a massive role cutting off DC pushes with numerous intercepts. The Hawks continued to show off their deep engine room, with the Hinchen brothers, Mark Cannatelli, and Dean Kakouras all sweeping through for clearances while Chris Gough dominate the ruck contest. While DC found some pace and came hard out of the half, the under-manned Hawks kept with them, matching score for score to cap off the win, 9.7.61 to 7.1.43
Capping off the day, the Lady Hawks hit the field, joined by members of the Dockers, to face a strong DC team. The Lady Hawks started off the game with a great push, as debutant Cat Frazier slotted her first goal with a soccer through the middle. Plenty of back-and-forth action saw the Eagles press into their forward 50 twice as often as the Lady Hawks, but strong defender play from stalwarts Barb Dempsey and Jackie Kershaw kept the Eagles women on edge, leading to kicks being sprayed into behinds or out on the full. Combined with strong pursuit through the midfield from the returning Erica Sacci, the Hawks were in it, but just couldn’t keep up, as the DC girls brought it home by a margin of 5.15.45 to 4.6.30.
Coming Up
The Oklahoma Football Club comes into town to play the Hawks in a full match on September 7, with the Lady Hawks having the day off. Both teams travel back to Baltimore for full one-on-one matches against the Dockers on September 21.
