Hawks look to team chemistry as they shoot for the playoffs this season
Sharukh Ali, freshman midfielder for the Hawks, leaps past Canada Colts freshman midfielder Omar Ramirez for the ball during the Hawks dominating field performance on Sept. 12. The Hawks defeated the Colts 3-0, securing their second win for the season.
After delivering a sol- id performance last season, the Cosumnes River College men’s soccer team is looking towards the season ahead.
With two wins, two losses and one tie under their belt already in the 2014 season, the guys are confident that good things are in the future for the Hawks.
“We prepared this year looking at it from more of a fitness aspect, so this year we’re more fit than everyone else,” said assistant coach Brandon Evangelista. “We kind of went more for defense first and let the offense come to us.”
Freshman forward Edmond Smith shared how coaches got the players so fit.
“We had a trainer named Foster that ran us into the ground, and now we’re very, very in shape,” said Smith.
With only a few games behind them, Evangelista said the team is doing well.
“I think the season is going alright, rocky parts here and there, but I think overall we started off very well for being pretty much a new freshman team with just a couple sophomores,” Evangelista said.
Many on the team agreed with their coach.
“I think the season is going pretty good,” said Jose Figueroa, a freshman defender. “We started off playing a division two school and now we’re about to enter our conference.”
The three-game conference is scheduled to begin Sept. 26 at American River College.
“Looking at most of the teams we’ve been playing, I think we’ll do very well,” Evangelista said. “I think we’ll compete really hard with some of the schools like with Modesto and Santa Rosa. I feel we could take them and actually win a conference this year.”
The team of primarily freshman, only four sophomores making up the ranks, isn’t letting having a greener team get in their way.
“I think we’re working good, we all have a good bond, a good friendship,” Figueroa said.
A bond so strong Smith said he believes it could take them all the way to the playoff s.
“If our team chemistry continues and we continue to progress and get better and work as a team I think we could do it,” Smith said.
Even though the season is still young, Evangelista said there are a few players to keep an eye on this season.
“Right now there has been a couple. [Sophomore midfielder] Ander [Saez]. Figueroa has played amazing starting every game,” Evangelista said. “I would say those two have been our big bright sides right now.”